Political correctness isn’t killing the country. It’s not leading to our demise. It’s not making us more vulnerable and it’s not making us weak. It’s making us more tolerant and accepting, which should be considered a positive.

Ben Carson continually spouts off about political correctness during Republican Primary Debates and how it’s crippling our country. To be blunt, it’s ridiculous and the fact that someone running for president thinks that trying not to offend people will be the cause of our downfall is laughable and incredibly frustrating.

Let’s look at the definition of political correctness, which no one seems to actually know. According to Merriam-Webster, being politically correct is defined as agreeing with the idea that people should be careful to not use language or behave in a way that could offend a particular group of people. However, if you were watching the debates, you would think being political correct means to let terrorists run rampant and take over the country so we don’t offend them.

Acting like political correctness is some huge problem is an absurd scare tactic being used to justify intolerance and rally those who agree with bigoted beliefs such as banning all Muslims. I get that in politics sometimes hyperbole is necessary to bring people together and pump up the crowd, but doing so by vilifying Muslim Americans in an effort to gather votes is despicable.

Saying all Muslims aren’t terrorists isn’t being “weak” on terror, it’s being truthful. Closing down mosques isn’t putting a stop to “radical Islamic terrorism”,   it’s encouraging it, and most importantly, being tolerant isn’t being cowardly. It’s being an American and it’s time we come together and understand that. Muslims aren’t the enemy, terrorists are, and if any presidential candidate is incapable of understanding that difference, they don’t deserve your vote.