Political correctness (adjectivally, politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term which denotes language Language is a term most commonly used to refer to so called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. By extension the term also refers to the type of human thought process which creates and uses language. Essential to both meanings is the systematic creation, maintenance and use of systems of, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, disability, and age-related contexts. In current usage, the term is primarily pejorative Pejoratives are words or grammatical forms which denote a negative effect; that is, they express the contempt or distaste of the speaker. Sometimes a term may begin as a pejorative word and eventually be adopted in a non-pejorative sense. In historical linguistics, this phenomenon is known as melioration, or amelioration, or semantic change,[1][2] while the term politically incorrect has been used as an implicitly positive self-description. Examples of the latter include the conservative Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and opposes rapid change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism and seek a return to "the way things were." The first established use Politically Incorrect Guides The Politically Incorrect Guide is a book series by Regnery Publishing presenting "politically incorrect" beliefs on various topics. The books are written by different authors and generally present a conservative or libertarian viewpoint on the subject at hand. The series was the brainchild of Jeffrey Rubin,[citation needed] then editor published by the Regnery Regnery Publishing in Washington, D.C. is a publisher which specializes in conservative books characterized on their website as "contrary to those of 'mainstream' publishers in New York." Since 1993, Regnery Publishing has been a division of Eagle Publishing, which also owns the weekly magazine Human Events. Regnery is currently led by editorial house[3] and the television talk show Politically Incorrect Politically Incorrect was a late-night, half-hour political talk show hosted by Bill Maher that ran from 1993 to 2002. It premiered on Comedy Central from 1993 to 1996, and later on ABC in 1997, which cancelled it in 2002. In these cases, the term politically incorrect connotes language, ideas, and behavior unconstrained by a perceived orthodoxy The word orthodox, from Greek orthodoxos "having the right opinion", from orthos + doxa ("opinion" or "praise", related to dokein, "to think"), is typically used to mean the adherence to accepted or traditional and established norms, especially in religion or by concerns about offending or expressing bias regarding various groups of people.

Contents

History

Early usages

Early usages of the phrase "politically correct" have been found in various contexts, which may not relate to the current terminology.[4][5] Examples of the term can be found as early as the 18th century. The previous meaning was 'in line with prevailing political thought or policy'. The term previously used 'correctness' in its literal sense and without any particular reference to language that might be considered offensive or discriminatory. That usage dates back to the 18th century. For example, J. Wilson's comments in U.S. Republic, 1793:

"The states, rather than the people, for whose sake the states exist, are frequently the objects which attract and arrest our principal attention... Sentiments and expressions of this inaccurate kind prevail in our common, even in our convivial, language... ‘The United States’, instead of the ‘People of the United States’, is the toast given. This is not politically correct."[6]

In New Left rhetoric

By 1970, New Left The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist approach to social justice and focused mostly on labor proponents had adopted the term political correctness.[1] In the essay The Black Woman, Toni Cade Bambara Toni Cade Bambara was an American author, social activist, and college professor says: “. . . a man cannot be politically correct and a [male] chauvinist Chauvinism, , in its original and primary meaning, is an exaggerated, bellicose patriotism and a blind belief in national superiority and glory. By extension it has come to include an extreme and unreasoning partisanship on behalf of any group to which one belongs, especially when the partisanship includes malice and hatred towards a rival group too”. The New Left later re-appropriated the term political correctness as satirical Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form, although in practice it can be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are censured by ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent of improvement. Although satire is usually self-criticism; per Debra Shultz: “Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the New Left, feminists, and progressives . . . used their term politically correct ironically, as a guard against their own orthodoxy in social change efforts”.[1][2][7] Hence, it is a popular English usage in the underground comic book Merton of the Movement, by Bobby London Bobby London is an American underground comix and mainstream comics artist, while ideologically sound, an alternative term, followed a like lexical path, appearing in Bart Dickon’s satirical comic strips.[1][8] Moreover, Ellen Willis Ellen Jane Willis was an American left-wing political essayist, journalist, and pop music critic says: “ . . . in the early ’80s, when feminists Feminism refers to political, cultural, and economic movements aimed at establishing greater rights, legal protection for women, and/or women's liberation. Feminism includes some of the sociological theories and philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference. It is also a movement that campaigns for women's rights and interests. Nancy used the term political correctness, it was used to refer sarcastically to the anti-pornography movement’s efforts to define a ‘feminist sexuality’ ”.[9]

Current usage

Widespread use of the term politically correct and its derivatives began when it was adopted as a pejorative term by the political right in the 1990s, in the context of the Culture Wars The culture war in American usage is a metaphor used to claim that political conflict is based on sets of conflicting cultural values. The term frequently implies a conflict between those values considered traditional or conservative and those considered progressive or liberal. The "culture war" is sometimes traced to the 1960s and has. Writing in the New York Times The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. Although it remains both the largest local metropolitan newspaper in the United States as well as being third largest overall, behind The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, the weekday circulation of the paper has fallen precipitously in 1990,[10] Richard Bernstein Richard Bernstein is an American journalist, columnist, and author. He writes the Letter from America column for The International Herald Tribune. He was a book critic at The New York Times and a foreign correspondent for both Time magazine and The New York Times in Europe and Asia noted "The term 'politically correct,' with its suggestion of Stalinist orthodoxy, is spoken more with irony and disapproval than with reverence. But across the country the term p.c., as it is commonly abbreviated, is being heard more and more in debates over what should be taught at the universities." Bernstein referred to a meeting of the Western Humanities Conference in Berkeley, California Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington. The eastern city limits coincide with the county line (bordering Contra Costa County), which, on " 'Political Correctness' and Cultural Studies", which examined "what effect the pressure to conform to currently fashionable ideas is having on scholarship". Bernstein also referred to "p.c.p" for "politically correct people", a term which did not take root in popular discussion.

Within a few years, this previously obscure term featured regularly in the lexicon of the conservative social and political challenges against curriculum In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults. A curriculum is prescriptive, and is based on a more general syllabus expansion and progressive teaching Education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another methods in US high schools and universities.[11] In 1991, addressing a graduating class of the University of Michigan The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public research university located in the state of Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan. It also includes two regional campuses in Flint and Dearborn, U.S. President George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States (1989–1993). He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President (1981–1989), a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence spoke against "a movement [that would] declare certain topics 'off-limits', certain expressions 'off-limits', even certain gestures 'off-limits'" in allusion to liberal Political Correctness.[12] The most common usage here is as a pejorative term to refer to excessive deference to particular sensibilities at the expense of other considerations. The converse term "politically incorrect" came into use as an implicit term of self-praise, indicating that the user was not afraid to give offense[citation needed].

The central uses of the term relate to particular issues of race, gender, handicaps, ethnicity, sexual preference, culture and worldviews, and encompass both the language in which issues are discussed and the viewpoints that are expressed. Proponents of the view that differences in IQ test scores between blacks and whites are (primarily or largely) genetically determined state that criticism of these views is based on political correctness.[13]

Examples of language commonly criticized as "politically correct" include:[14]

More generally, any policy or factual claim opposed by the political right, such as the claim that global warming Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. According to the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the 20th is a serious problem requiring a policy response may be criticized as "politically correct".[15]

"Political correctness gone mad"

In the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land, "political correctness gone mad" is a widely used catchphrase A catch phrase is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through a variety of mass media (such as literature and publishing, motion pictures, television and radio), as well as word of mouth. Some catch phrases become the de facto " associated with the conservative Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and opposes rapid change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism and seek a return to "the way things were." The first established use Daily Mail The Daily Mail is a British, daily middle market tabloid newspaper. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper, The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982. Scottish and Irish editions of the paper were launched in 1947 and 2006 respectively. The Daily newspaper.[16] A literal interpretation might be that the catchphrase applies to instances where political correctness, desirable in moderation, is taken too far. In reality, however, "political correctness" is almost always used pejoratively and the catchphrase is applied to stories (frequently apocryphal) seen as representing extreme forms of political correctness.[17]

World-wide

Versions of the term politically correct are popular in several Scandinavian countries Scandinavia is a region in northern Europe that includes Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Modern Norway and Sweden form the Scandinavian Peninsula. The name Scandinavia is considered to have the same etymology as Scania. Finland is sometimes considered a Scandinavian country in common English usage, and Iceland and the Faroe Islands are sometimes also (politiskt korrekt abbreviated PK), in Portugal Portugal /ˈpɔɹtʃʉɡəl/ (Portuguese: Portugal, Mirandese: Pertual), officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa; Mirandese: República Pertuesa), is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and, Spain Spain (pronounced /ˈspeɪn/ spayn; Spanish: España, pronounced [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.[note 6] Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for, and Latin America Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages (i.e., those derived from Latin) – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² (7,880,000 sq mi), almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area. As of 2009, its (Sp., políticamente correcto | Port., politicamente correcto), France France (pronounced /ˈfrænts/ frantss or /ˈfrɑːnts/ frahnts; French pronunciation (help·info): [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a state in Western Europe with several of its overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, (politiquement correct), Germany A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, has been known and documented before AD 100. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. During the 16th century, northern Germany became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. As a modern nation-state, (politisch korrekt), Poland Poland /ˈpəʊlənd/ (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska), is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of (poprawność polityczna, poprawny politycznie), Slovenia Slovenia /sloʊˈviːniə/ sloh-VEE-nee-ə, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Republika Slovenija, [reˈpublika sloˈveːnija] (help·info)), is a country in Central Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy on the west, the Adriatic Sea on the southwest, Croatia on the south and east, Hungary on (politično korekten), Croatia Croatia (pronounced /kroʊˈeɪʃə/ , kroe-AY-shə; Croatian: Hrvatska pronounced [xř̩ʋaːtskaː]), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska listen (help·info)), is a country in Central Europe and Southeastern Europe at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Adriatic Sea. Its capital and largest (politički korektan), the Netherlands The Netherlands (pronounced /ˈnɛðɚləndz/ ; Dutch: Nederland, pronounced [ˈneːdərlɑnt] ( listen)) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in North-West Europe. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany and Flanders Flanders (Dutch: Vlaanderen , French: Flandre, German: Flandern) is the (political) community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Over the course of history, the geographical territory that was called "Flanders" has (politiek correct), Italy Italy (pronounced /ˈɪtəli/ ; Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a country located partly on the European Continent and partly on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine (politicamente corretto), Russia Russia (pronounced /ˈrʌʃə/ ; Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈraʦəjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal (политкорректность, политкорректный), and New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori language name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud. The Realm of New Zealand also,.[18] These terms have no significant history of use in the countries concerned prior to the 1990s. Rather they are calques (loan translations In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word (Latin: "verbum pro verbo") or root-for-root translation) derived from the recent pejorative use of the term in English.[19]

Explanations

As a linguistic concept

In addressing the linguistic problem of naming, Edna Andrews says that using “inclusive” and “neutral” language is based upon the concept that “language represents thought, and may even control thought”.[20] This claim has been derived from the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, which states that a language’s grammatical categories shape the speaker’s ideas and actions; although Andrews says that moderate conceptions of the relation between language and thought are sufficient to support the “reasonable deduction . . . [of] cultural change via linguistic change”.[21]

Other cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is a discipline within psychology that investigates the internal mental processes of thought such as visual processing, memory, thinking, learning, feeling, problem solving, and language and cognitive linguistics In linguistics, cognitive linguistics refers to the branch of linguistics that interprets language in terms of the concepts, sometimes universal, sometimes specific to a particular tongue, which underlie its forms. It is thus closely associated with semantics but is distinct from psycholinguistics, which draws upon empirical findings from works indicate that word-choice has significant “framing effects A frame in social theory consists of a schema of interpretation — that is, a collection of anecdotes and stereotypes—that individuals rely on to understand and respond to events.[page needed] In simpler terms, a person has, through their lifetime, built a series of mental emotional filters. They use these filters to make sense of the world” on the perceptions, memories, and attitudes of speakers and listeners.[22][23] The relevant empirical question is whether or not sexist language Gender-neutral language, gender-inclusive language, or gender neutrality is linguistic prescriptivism that aims at minimizing assumptions regarding the gender of human referents. For example, this may include replacing words such as chairman and stewardess with terms such as chairperson and flight attendant promotes sexism, i.e. sexist thought and action.

Advocates of inclusive language Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, disability, and age-related contexts. In current usage, the term is primarily pejorative, while the term politically incorrect has been defend it as inoffensive-language usage whose goal is multi-fold:

  1. The rights, opportunities, and freedoms of certain people are restricted because they are reduced to stereotypes A stereotype is a commonly held public belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions. Generally speaking,.
  2. Stereotyping is mostly implicit, unconscious, and facilitated by the availability of pejorative labels and terms.
  3. Rendering the labels and terms socially unacceptable, people then must consciously think about how they describe someone unlike themselves.
  4. When labeling is a conscious activity, the described person's individual merits become apparent, rather than his or her stereotype.

Critics of such arguments, and of inclusive language in general, commonly use the terminology of "political correctness" .[24]

A common criticism is that terms chosen by an identity group, as acceptable descriptors of themselves, then pass into common usage, including usage by the racists and sexists whose racism and sexism, et cetera, the new terms mean to supersede. The new terms are thus devalued, and another set of words must be coined, giving rise to lengthy progressions such as Negro, Colored, Black, Afro-American, African-American, and so on, (cf. Euphemism treadmill A euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener, or to make it less troublesome for the speaker, as in the case of doublespeak. The deployment of euphemisms is a central aspect within the public application of political correctness).

As an engineered political term

Some left-wing commentators claimed that after 1980, right-wing American conservatives Conservatism in the United States is a major American political philosophy. In contemporary American politics, it is often associated with the Republican Party. Most conservatives agree with most of these principles: that America is a Christian nation , preservation of moral order and of tradition, capitalism, anti-communism, American re-engineered the term political correctness to ideologically re-frame US politics as a culture war. Hutton reports:

Political correctness is one of the brilliant tools that the American Right developed in the mid-1980s, as part of its demolition of American liberalism. . . . What the sharpest thinkers on the American Right saw quickly was that by declaring war on the cultural manifestations of liberalism — by levelling the charge of "political correctness" against its exponents — they could discredit the whole political project.[25]

Moreover, the commentators claimed there never was a “Political Correctness movement” in the US, and that many who use the term do so to distract attention from substantive debate about racial, class and gender discrimination and unequal legal treatment.[26] Similarly, Polly Toynbee argued that “the phrase is an empty right-wing smear designed only to elevate its user”.[27]

Commenting on the UK's 2009 Equality Bill, Toynbee wrote that:

The phrase "political correctness" was born as a coded cover for all who still want to say Paki, spastic or queer, all those who still want to pick on anyone not like them, playground bullies who never grew up. The politically correct society is the civilised society, however much some may squirm at the more inelegant official circumlocutions designed to avoid offence.[28]

Criticism

General

University of Pennsylvania professor Alan Charles Kors and lawyer Harvey A. Silverglate connect political correctness to Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse. They claim that liberal ideas of free speech are repressive, arguing that such “Marcusean logic” is the base of speech codes in US universities. Kors and Silvergate later established the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which campaigns against PC speech codes.[29]

The academic Camille Paglia said that PC empowers the enemies of the Left, and alienates the masses against feminism.[30]

Further information: Loony Left#Baa Baa White Sheep

Critics of PC have been accused of displaying the same sensitivity to word choice that they claim to oppose, and of perceiving non-existent political agenda.[31] For example, some newspapers reported that a school had altered the nursery rhyme “Baa Baa Black Sheep” to read “Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep”.[32] But it is also reported that a better description is that the Parents and Children Together (PACT) nursery had the children “turn the song into an action rhyme. . . . They sing happy, sad, bouncing, hopping, pink, blue, black and white sheep etc.” [33] That nursery rhyme story was circulated and later extended to suggest that like language bans applied to the terms “black coffee” and “blackboard”.[34] The Private Eye magazine reported that like stories, all baseless, ran in the British press since The Sun first published them in 1986.[31]

Structuralist philosopher and feminist icon Julia Kristeva, seen as a theorist who was instrumental in providing the philosophical basis for American political correctness, denounced political correctness in 2001 in New York Times and said her works have been distorted by Americans. She labeled identity politics and political correctness in general as totalitarian.[35]

In The Abolition of Britain, Peter Hitchens says: “What Americans describe with the casual phrase . . . ‘political correctness’ is the most intolerant system of thought to dominate the British Isles since the Reformation.”

Accusations of "cultural Marxism"

Some conservative critics claim that political correctness is a Marxist undermining of Western values.[36] William S. Lind and Patrick Buchanan have characterized PC as a technique originated by the Frankfurt School, through what Buchanan describes as "Cultural Marxism".[37][38] In The Death of the West, Buchanan says: “Political Correctness is Cultural Marxism, a regime to punish dissent and to stigmatize social heresy as the Inquisition punished religious heresy. Its trademark is intolerance.” [39]

Political correctness and science

See also: Politicization of science

Among scientists, "correctness" (of procedures, results, or scientific claims) derives from the factual truth of the matter or the soundness of the reasoning by which it can be deduced from observations and first principals. When publication, teaching, and public funding of science is decided by peer committees, academic standards, and elected or appointed boards, the allegation can arise that a work's acceptability has been assessed "politically". Professor J. I. Katz applies the term PC to censure characterized by emotional, rather than rational discourse.[40]

Groups opposing mainstream scientific views on evolution, global warming, passive smoking, AIDS, and other contentious scientific matters argue that PC is responsible for the failure of their perspectives to receive a fair public hearing; thus, in Lamarck’s Signature: How Retrogenes are Changing Darwin’s Natural Selection Paradigm, Assoc. Prof. Edward J. Steele says: “We now stand on the threshold of what could be an exciting new era of genetic research. . . . However, the ‘politically correct’ thought agendas of the neo–Darwinists of the 1990s are ideologically opposed to the idea of ‘Lamarckian Feedback’, just as the Church was opposed to the idea of evolution based on natural selection in the 1850s!” [41]

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, by Tom Bethell, is a comprehensive presentation argument that mainstream science is dominated by politically correct thinking. Bethell rejects mainstream views about evolution and global warming, and supports AIDS denialism.[42]

Accusations of exclusion

An article by Larry Elder in FrontPage Magazine referred to an incident on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect where the term "white trash" was used in reference to guests on the Jerry Springer Show and asked 'Why Is It Okay to Say "White Trash?"'.[43] Commenting on this, and citing an instance of the term in a glossy magazine, blogger Ed Driscoll asked "Why Is "White Trash" An Acceptable Phrase In PC America?".[44]

Lists of PC euphemisms include terms such as "caucasian culturally-disadvantaged" for "white trash",[45] but it is clear that such terms are not in widespread use.

Right wing political correctness

Accusations of political correctness, in the sense of enforced orthodoxy, have also been directed against the political right. For example, the intense backlash against country band the Dixie Chicks, for remarks critical of President George W. Bush onstage in London in 2003, was described by newspaper columnist Don Williams as the price for freely speaking political views disapproved by the Right Wing. Williams went on to say, “the ugliest form of political correctness occurs whenever there’s a war on. Then you’d better watch what you say.” He noted that Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly called the remarks in question "treasonous".[46]

Bill Maher's show Politically Incorrect was canceled soon after remarks he made about the 9/11 hijackers. White House press secretary under President Bush at the time, Ari Fleischer stated, "people have to watch what they say and watch what they do." Two journalists lost their jobs soon after the 9/11 attacks for statements critical of the president.[47]

Linguistic examples of right-wing adjustments to language criticized as examples of political correctness include renaming French fries “Freedom fries”[48] on the model of US canneries renaming sauerkraut “Liberty cabbage” during the First World War as a marketing tool to avoid potential public disapproval of a product with a German name.[49]

In 2004, then Australian Labor leader Mark Latham described conservative calls for "civility" as "The New Political Correctness".[50]

Satirical use

Political correctness often is satirized, for example in the Politically Correct Manifesto (1992), by Saul Jerushalmy and Rens Zbignieuw X,[51] and Politically Correct Bedtime Stories (1994), by James Finn Garner, presenting fairy tales re-written from an exaggerated PC perspective.

Other examples include the television program Politically Incorrect, George Carlin’s "Euphemisms" routine, and The Politically Correct Scrapbook.[52] The popularity of the South Park cartoon program on the Right led to the creation of the term South Park Republican by Andrew Sullivan, and later the book South Park Conservatives by Brian C. Anderson.[53]

Replying to the “Freedom Fries” matter, wits suggested that the Fama-French model used in corporate finance be renamed the “Fama-Freedom” model.[54]

British comedian Stewart Lee also satirized the oft used phrase of criticism for political correctness: "it's political correctness gone mad." In which Lee, himself, criticized people for overusing this phrase without even understanding the concept of political correctness (including many people's confusion of it with Health & Safety laws). He in particular criticized Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn for his overzealous use of the phrase.[55]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Ruth Perry, (1992), “A short history of the term ‘politically correct’ ”, in Beyond PC: Toward a Politics of Understanding , by Patricia Aufderheide, 1992
  2. ^ a b Schultz, Debra L. (1993). To Reclaim a Legacy of Diversity: Analyzing the “Political Correctness” Debates in Higher Education. New York: National Council for Research on Women. [1]
  3. ^ "Regnery". http://www.regnery.com/pig.html. Retrieved December 28, 2007.
  4. ^ Chisholm v State of GA, 2 US 419 (1793) Findlaw.com - Accessed February 6, 2007. “The states, rather than the People, for whose sakes the States exist, are frequently the objects which attract and arrest our principal attention. . . . Sentiments and expressions of this inaccurate kind prevail in our common, even in our convivial, language. Is a toast asked? ‘The United States’, instead of the ‘People of the United States’, is the toast given. This is not politically correct.”
  5. ^ Flower, Newmas (2006). The Journals of Arnold Bennett. READ BOOKS,. ISBN 9781406710472. http://books.google.com/?id=kRJblj1e4zsC&pg=PA108&lpg=PA108&dq=%22Political+correctness%22+%22arnold+bennett%22.
  6. ^ http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/287100.html
  7. ^ Schultz citing Perry (1992) p.16
  8. ^ Joel Bleifuss (February 2007). "A Politically Correct Lexicon". In These Times. http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3027/a_politically_correct_lexicon/.
  9. ^ Ellen Willis, “Toward a Feminist Revolution”, in No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays (1992) Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 0-8195-5250-X, p.19.
  10. ^ Bernstein, Richard (October 28, 1990). "IDEAS & TRENDS; The Rising Hegemony of the Politically Correct - The New York Times". http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/28/weekinreview/ideas-trends-the-rising-hegemony-of-the-politically-correct.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  11. ^ D’Souza 1991; Berman 1992; Schultz 1993; Messer Davidow 1993, 1994; Scatamburlo 1998
  12. ^ Remarks at the University of Michigan Commencement Ceremony in Ann Arbor, May 4, 1991. George Bush Presidential Library.
  13. ^ "The Bell Curve Wars". http://www.galtoninstitute.org.uk/Newsletters/GINL9606/bell_curve_wars.htm.
  14. ^ "www.amazon.com". http://www.amazon.com/Official-Politically-Correct-Dictionary-Handbook/dp/078710146X.
  15. ^ Mihkel M. Mathiesen (2004). Global Warming in a Politically Correct Climate: How Truth Became Controversial. iUniverse Star. ISBN 0-595-29797-8.
  16. ^ "Multiculturalism and citizenship: responses to Tariq Modood | openDemocracy". http://www.opendemocracy.net/faith-terrorism/response_madood_4630.jsp.
  17. ^ "Political Correctness Gone Mad - Television Tropes & Idioms". http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad.
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  20. ^ Cultural Sensitivity and Political Correctness: The Linguistic Problem of Naming, Edna Andrews, American Speech, Vol. 71, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp.389-404.
  21. ^ Development and Validation of an Instrument to Measure Attitudes Toward Sexist/Nonsexist Language Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, March 2000, by Janet B. Parks, Mary Ann Roberton [2]
  22. ^ Loftus, E. and Palmer, J. 1974. “Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory”. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 13, pp.585-9
  23. ^ Kahneman, D. and Amos Tversky. 1981. “The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice”. Science, 211, pp.453-8
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  26. ^ Messer–Davidow 1993, 1994; Schultz 1993; Lauter 1995; Scatamburlo 1998; and Glassner 1999.
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  28. ^ Toynbee, Polly (April 28, 2009). "This bold equality push is just what we needed. In 1997". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/28/toynbee-equality-bill-welfare. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  29. ^ Kors, A.C. and Silvergate, H, "Codes of silence - who's silencing free speech on campus -- and why" Reason Magazine (online), November 1998 - Accessed February 6, 2007.
  30. ^ Camille Paglia says it best-- Accessed February 2, 2007. “My message to the media is: ‘Wake up!’ The silencing of authentic debate among feminists just helps the rise of the far right. When the media get locked in their Northeastern ghetto and become slaves of the feminist establishment and fanatical special interests, the American audience ends up looking to conservative voices for common sense. As a libertarian Democrat, I protest against this self-defeating tyranny of political correctness.”
  31. ^ a b "Obsolete: Baa Baa Rainbow Bollocks.". http://www.septicisle.info/2006/03/baa-baa-rainbow-bollocks.html. Retrieved October 6, 2007.
  32. ^ Blair, Alexandra (March 7, 2006). "Why black sheep are barred and Humpty can't be cracked". London: The Times. http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article738220.ece. Retrieved October 5, 2007.
  33. ^ "Nursery opts for 'rainbow' sheep". BBC News. March 7, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4782856.stm. Retrieved October 6, 2007.
  34. ^ "Teen Ink - Bah, Bah, Rainbow Sheep". http://teenink.com/talk/showthread.php?s=cb96eb0a024fd73bbc9080f5184fd151&postid=322528. Retrieved October 6, 2007.
  35. ^ Riding, Alan, Correcting Her Idea of Politically Correct. New York Times. June 14, 2001
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  37. ^ "William S. Lind says Political Correctness is a form of what Buchanan describes as cultural Marxism". Academia.org. http://www.academia.org/lectures/lind1.html. Retrieved June 1, 2009.
  38. ^ "Buchanan interview on Fox News". Foxnews.com. May 27, 2005. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,157952,00.html. Retrieved June 1, 2009.
  39. ^ Buchanan, Patrick The Death of the West, p.89
  40. ^ "What Is Political Correctness?". http://wuphys.wustl.edu/~katz/pc.html.
  41. ^ Robert V. Blanden; Steele, Edward David; Lindley, Robyn A. (1999). Lamarck's signature: how retrogenes are changing Darwin's natural selection paradigm. Reading, Mass: Perseus Books. ISBN 0-7382-0171-5.
  42. ^ Bethell, Tom (2005). The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science. Washington, D.C: Regnery Publishing. ISBN 0-89526-031-X.
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  47. ^ A National Challenged:Speech and Expression
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  55. ^ The Guardian Online - Stewart lee Interview

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'Political Correctness' News
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Left Coast Rebel: Krauthammer on Political Correctness at NASA

Proof

ue, 06 Jul 2010 02:36:00 GM

Under Obama, NASA is abandoning the United States preeminence in space in favor of global warming circle jerks and feel good . political correctness. . This guy has got to go! More at News Busters Cross posted at Proof Positive ...

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'Political Correctness' Answers
How can I wipe political correctness off the face of the Earth forever?
Q. I am sick of hearing holiday tree. It is called a christmas tree! I am also sick of changing everything so no one is offended "baa baa rainbow sheep wtf?! SO is there anyway to rid the planet of the horror known as political correctness?
Asked by Jake A - Sun Dec 21 07:26:13 2008 - - 6 Answers - 0 Comments

A. I don't know :( But, if you figure a way, can I help?!
Answered by Iron Maiden's Gonna Get Ya! - Sun Dec 21 23:22:41 2008

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