In the world of today where words are violence and we must not offend people there is a problem with stories. First people can choose to be offended by anything. It is an ever moving goal post.
Yet let's assume you do thread the needle, and make it through the minefield of things you shouldn't say or talk about unless you offend someone.
How do you describe a bad guy?
You certainly can't do it by writing about all the offensive things they do, believe in, engage in, etc.
Just the stating of things viewed as offensive these days is considered violence, and to be censored. You can't even describe the bad guys or bad ideas. They are so bad and so offensive they simply dare not be mentioned.
Then the people at Pearson and other companies that keep rereleasing new text books for education year after year need to quickly get scrubbing...
Scrub that history...
That thing that happened back then. It is something offensive. Let's remove that and say "This was a bad person."
In the physical world you might of had a statue you walked by that made you think of things. You see the statue and perhaps that statue caused you to mentally cringe. You'd look at your child or grandchild and say "Let me tell you something about that statue." The children would learn the tale and carry it on.
Now the statues that might be offensive to some are being removed. Perhaps they are being replaced with statues of drug addicts that others might find offensive. That is okay because you soon realize that it truly is only a bad thing to offend certain people. It is only violence and hateful when it targets something they find offensive.
If it is on the other hand something those same people endorse it doesn't matter that others find it hateful and offensive. They throw their rulebook aside then. They accuse the person that is offended by something they like as being a hater.
Then the future people walk by the spot where once a statue stood. They do not see it. They do not look down into the eyes of the child walking with them and tell them a story. Why? The reminder was gone.
The world was sanitized...
The bad things were hidden...
In a sense instead of maturing and coming out from under the covers and facing our fears we decided to build a blanket big enough for the entire world to hide under...
and pretend that offensive things do not exist...
Afterall they are banned.
The bad guy of the future will simply be based upon whatever moving goal post of being offended currently finds to be the next thing to erase.
Some people might stop and look at the sanitized world, erased history, and people living and reacting to fear and think "The bad guys won."
It's OK To Say "Gay" But Please Don't Use Offensive Words Like "Boy" Or "Girl"
