Written by: Beck
"Do you know where is the copier?"
A friend asked that of me today. He's a quadralingual speaker of Mexican descent, and while his English is quite good, he gets idiomatic usage wrong occasionally. I answered him quickly, not thinking for even a second to point out that, "Do you know where the copier is?" would sound more natural.
I thought about this for a second, and had the sudden insight that this is a negative consequence/side effect of the politically correct culture which now holds iron clad domination over American society.
I can recall in the 80's, you'd hear comedians make jokes all the time about the silly things people would do and say to be PC. While some of the most extreme manifestations of the PC movement have (mostly) been abandoned (e.g. handi-capable), the more fundamental principle at work behind the PC movement have taken such a firm grip of our daily lives that we no longer even think about it.
Perhaps the strongest single manifestation of the phenomenon is hyper-sensitivity when it comes to racial issues. There's nothing wrong with a friendly syntax correction, especially with someone you are on friendly terms with. In fact, the person in question would likely have appreciated the pointer. Nonetheless, it didn't even cross my mind to say anything until minutes later when the whole PC culture juxtaposition popped unbidden into my head.
Or maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill.