Thinking Harder about Political Correctness

[homersapien 12,875]

Good commentary.

http://www.huffingto..._b_8908436.html

Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican presidential pack have had a field day disparaging political correctness as an affliction of liberals that is resented by regular Americans. Some liberal commentators have suggested that political correctness has become a serious albatross for Democrats.

Columnist Thomas Edsall, in a piece for the New York Times online, cited polls showing that large numbers of Americans, Democrats as well as Republicans, agreed that "political correctness" was a big problem.

But what exactly is political correctness? The term was first used by lefties to make fun of themselves. I've been hearing it used ironically since the 1970s. As in: "This may not be politically correct, but may I buy you a drink?"

This use of "politically correct" initially reflected the New Left and the feminist movement of that era mocking the efforts by the Communist Party to insist on rigid conventions of speech, along the lines of George Orwell's Thought Police in his novel 1984.

Then the right got hold of the phrase and used it to claim that left-wingers were the new conformists, enforcing speech codes and embracing extreme identity politics. Allan Bloom's 1987 book, The Closing of the American Mind, attacked liberal college professors for imposing "politically correct" ways of thinking on impressionable undergraduates. The term then became a staple of rightwing rhetoric against liberals.

The interesting question is why Donald Trump's resurrection of the term in the 2016 campaign resonates with so many people.

Trump, let's recall, has taken insulting rhetoric to a new low, and "politically correct" has become his all-purpose way of dismissing his critics. For Trump, politically incorrect masquerades as a badge of candor. He may sound like gutter politics, but he's actually a courageous truth-teller.

Still, it's significant that his message hits home with his audience......

read more at http://www.huffingto..._b_8908436.html

[AFTiger 282]

Political correctness is stifling

[AURaptor 1,137]

Political correctness allows for crime to be committed and go on unpunished for fear of seeming intolerant or worse, racist.

[TheBlueVue 177]

Lets remember the genesis, if you will, of political correctness. it has its origins in Communist China where Mao Zedong said, "Not to have the correct political point of view is like having no soul". he wrote the book on the topic commonly referred to as his "Little Red Book" and he went on to murder 50 to 70 million Chinese people to make sure they all shared his point of view.

Political correctness is a cancer

[JoeBags7277 760]

First rule of being an American: DBAA

Second rule of being an American: learn to laugh a little, and don't get your panties in a wad every time someone happens to break rule 1.

May sound a tad contradictory, but learning the balance is key to living in a free, open society.

[Mims44 2,183]

"Allan Bloom's 1987 book, The Closing of the American Mind, attacked liberal college professors for imposing "politically correct" ways of thinking on impressionable undergraduates."

That still happens a lot today. And many young kids eat it up.