We’ve made a world where it is far too easy to conclude everyone is at an extreme. The only options that seem to be left are either vanta black or the purest ethereal white. The loud and rapid influx of voices on social media make minorities seem like majorities. Take Linday Clancy’s case, a triple infanticide by the children’s own mother—whether a result of psychosis or not is up to debate. The deadly case, combined with the uncertainty of mental illness left thousands calling to either strip women’s rights or put her ex-husband, a man with no evidence against him, in jail. Such is an example of when the far fewer radicals overflow the media with their opinion, creating the illusion of a majority. Overcorrection catalyzes this reaction by creating the illusion that certain groups are oppressed, even though it is a radical minority that act as the oppressors. The civil rights movement, feminism, environmental protection, and even verbal respect are all ideas we should back, but now they—or at least their appearances—have been twisted and pushed to their extremes.
As these policies and movements go over the edge, it also isolates the new group that problems have been created for, producing a large group of critics to slander the original and just goal, due to the fact that it holds the same name as the overexerted version. How many times have you heard people proclaim that feminism, for instance, is not what it used to be? Countless female influencers use the feminist movement to justify misandrist content. Even the “Me Too” movement, which freed millions of women from the social stigma of discussing their negative sexual encounters, generated anxiety on approaching women, in fear of creating a similar negative experience. A NYT article supports this assessment, with survey answers, about why people thought Gen Z was having less sex, matching the Me Too overcorrection hypothesis. One respondent put it best, saying, “asking a girl out in public was like handing him a loaded shotgun.” Due to much of the media cluttered with videos online shaming and defaming interested males for the smallest of actions, men nowadays are extremely scared of the consequences of asking someone on a date or even flirting. Such radicalization led to other radical right-wing celebrities like Andrew Tate garnering a mass of followers because thousands of young men feel threatened and insecure .Overcorrection does not solve a problem; it creates one side to fight against the original goal because the base goal had been irreversibly warped.
This Great Polarizer also stiffens the flexibility of our society. In the past 20 years, the internet was often plagued by harassment, predators, and identity theft. However, regulating this would open the possibility for many to, both intentionally or unintentionally, overcorrect once again and cause mass censorship, or even worse, to invade the privacy of everyone using a digital device. The EDR reported that the EU, for example, rallied the support of parents who wanted a safer internet for their children to push for a bill that would’ve allowed them to examine all chat messages. Luckily, that bill failed to pass, but it is a hallmark of a group of bills and movements that tighten the limits of freedom. There may not be old group on new group conflict as with gender equality, but these types of overcorrections can lead to a suppression of the rights that define our Western culture.
Policies that are justifiable and equitable are not immune to the treacherous serpent of overcorrection. Programs that make it easier for people with certain abilities or statuses to come into the US as immigrants have now either been revoked or put under watch, such as refugee caps or humanitarian programs, according to NYT and Refugees International, respectively. These actions all occur due to the current administration’s unreasonable and arbitrary crackdown on mass immigration, which has already been a major issue for the past many years. For years, drugs, illegal immigrants, and trafficking have rampaged across the southern border of our country, and in an attempt to stop it, we repeated overcorrection. Trump and his close circle are quite literally doing to death the issue of immigration, by going from an enormous influx of immigrants to scaring off the very people that help make this country great.
People follow a cause they believe in because it is the morally correct action to take, but it is also important to question who, or what, you express support for every step of the way. Doubt is not a lack of faith, but a symbol that you are thinking rationally about what you are taking part in. Has your movement shifted from its original stance? Has it gone over the plank into the sweet, consoling depths of hatred? To quote a character from the movie Conclave, “we need a pope who doubts.” Nowadays, though, we need everyone to doubt. We need to fight for what we believe in; not fight a beaten or bloody opponent, not to push so hard we make a new problem for ourselves, not to let ourselves be corrupted by the phonies at the top, swindling our movement to their whims. Do not fall victim to polarization or overcorrection. I implore you to doubt yourself and whatever you follow, so that we may banish the great burdens of polarization and overcorrection that have contaminated our society.
