Politics & Power Quote by Richard Petty

Petty’s line lands like a garage-side gripe that accidentally maps a whole era of cultural friction. “Now” does a lot of work: it sets up a before-and-after story where the past was freer, rougher, and more legible, and the present is policed by rules that feel imported from somewhere else. Coming from a NASCAR icon, it also carries the authority of a guy whose public life unfolded in a world built on bluntness, ribbing, and a certain performative toughness.

The genius (and the tell) is the choice of offense: sticking your tongue out is childish, harmless, almost cartoonishly minor. By picking a playground gesture instead of a slur or a punch, Petty frames “political correctness” as absurd overreach rather than moral accountability. It’s a rhetorical feint: if even this is banned, then surely everything is. The vagueness of “they’re” keeps the target flexible - media, sponsors, officials, younger fans, corporate America - anyone who’s made public behavior feel managed.

The subtext is less about etiquette than status. What’s being mourned is a social license: the ability to needle, to be impolite, to test boundaries without consequences. In a sport that professionalized fast (bigger sponsors, broader audiences, more cameras), the old codes started costing money and reputations. Petty’s complaint isn’t just nostalgia; it’s a read on how public life tightened up, turning once-private locker-room energy into something that can be replayed, litigated, and monetized against you.