Dana Milbank had a great opinion piece on this just today:
Since that first debate, Trump and his fellow Republican presidential candidates have connected political correctness to virtually every issue: Vladimir Putin. Immigration. The San Bernardino shooting. Planned Parenthood. David Cameron. The Islamic State. Gun ownership. Social networks. Demagoguery. Muslims. Women in the military. Israel. American exceptionalism. Climate change. Education. The mental-health system. The media. The national debt. Drug addiction. Prisoners of war. Women. Torture. Trans fats.
…
CNN’s Jake Tapper exposed the intellectual laziness in the label when Cruz said “political correctness” prevented U.S. officials from seeing radical Facebook postings by one of the San Bernardino shooters.
Tapper pointed out that the posting in question was under a pseudonym and was in a private message that the government can’t access. “How is that political correctness and not just privacy issues?” he asked.
Cruz changed the subject.
Timex
3803
Yeah, I’ve noticed it too. It annoys me, because any legitimate conservative discussion ends up getting buried under this contrived fear of political correctness.
As far as I can tell, political correctness is the new bogeyman, as it gives folks a way to not have to be sorry for being bigots. Oh, I’m not racist, or homophobic, out Islamophobic! The people complaining about it are just being politically correct!
It’s a way to take internal problems and project them to the outside world.
Miramon
3804
Sneering at “political correctness” is a shorthand way of saying “it’s okay to insult and marginalize minorities.” It’s pandering to bigots of all kinds. There is this magical-thinking conservative narrative of these liberal thought police coming to enforce politeness among the population. The irony is that the enforcement of politeness in middle-class society was far more pronounced and pervasive in the extremely bigoted times of the 19th and early 20th century than it is today.
Scuzz
3805
I am going to answer this based on what I have seen at various forums I visit. The right is going crazy over “reports” over things involving micro-aggressions in public schools and other public places. Those type stories are all labeled as examples of “political correctness” gone crazy, taken to the extreme. The Missouri University things is an example, the unwillingness of the left to use the term “Radical Islamic Terrorism” is an example, schools with small groups of students who are “demanding” changes to menus, classes etc are examples.
Gay marriage may have been an early feature, but I think most are way past that. I don’t do Facebook, but from what I see on forums I can only guess that Facebook is just full of memes and stories about PC stuff gone crazy.
Many of the things being labeled as “political correctness” these days my parents taught me as the Golden Rule.
Scuzz
3807
The difference is the golden rule wasn’t thousands of words long with lists of what is and isn’t somehow considered a micro-aggression. I think the one that truly surprised me was some college that decided the phrase “America, Land of Opportunity”, or something really close that, was hurtful to minorities.
Oghier
3808
“Political Correctness” has become a synonym for, “I’m not a racist, but…”
ShivaX
3809
There certainly are examples of Political Correctness “going to far,” but those are rarely what is being referenced.
Right after reading this thread, I went and one of my youtube subscriptions actually had one, which was kind of odd.
Exactly right.
Most of the over-reaches are, or at least the stories place them, at colleges and universities. That doesn’t surprise me. Part of the university experience is exploring boundaries, learning to think for ones-self about what all of these sorts of truisms like the Golden Rule, “don’t be a jerk,” “be inclusive,” etc. really mean. Student organizations have been pushing boundaries and exploring all sorts of crazy stuff for as long as there have been colleges and universities. Part of the experience is pushing too far sometimes, or in directions that don’t end up actually accomplishing what was intended. That’s a good thing, generally speaking. It’s by making mistakes that those students learn where the lines are and how to be truly effective in influencing society around them. From the outside many of those attempts are downright silly and worthy of all the eye-rolling we can muster. No different from most creative writing down by students in that regard. But they’re learning. Getting better at it. Figuring out what works. Some of them will learn well enough to be the political and social leaders of the next generation.
A safe space I hope we don’t lose is the space within which to explore those ideas.
Quaro
3811
Yeah, in today’s media environment, every dumb letter to the editor whining about cafeteria food become a national news story and ignites the take machine. Does nobody remember college at all?
Scuzz
3812
Don’t you love it when someone oversimplifies something…I mean if someone disagrees they just have to be racist, don’t they?
Nesrie
3813
It’s a balancing act. But to be honest, if you’re sitting next to some young person in class who just goes off on how much he hates Africans, that they’re animals, that google was right to label them as apes… it’s hard to concentrate and you begin to wonder if you’re actually safe next to someone like that. They’re literally labeling you as less than human which usually equates to not having human rights. Try dealing with that everyday… my favorite is when they tell you go back to Africa as if you’ve been there before… ever. Now i understand there’s this idea if someone’s skin is thick as it should be that’s not a problem… but that’s not the reality.
Now on the other hand, if someone runs around using the word “Asian” as if it just pertains to China or Japan, i don’t see a problem trying to correct that ignorance… they’re in school. Trying to make someone more informed does not mean your banning their speech. Some people just can’t stand realizing they don’t know everything though.
I completely agree with you. I would hope that no-one is using “Political Correctness” to refer to the former situation. Probably a forlorn hope, but still.
It’s stuff like trigger warnings on everything, microagression awareness, etc., that strike me as (often, anyway) young people struggling to figure out how to interact with the ever changing world and make it a better place. Lots of the stuff that gets trotted out ad nauseum in the Identity Politics thread.
Reminds me a lot of the West Wing episode (dating myself here, I suppose) “Somebody’s Going to Emergency” when Toby is mocking the anti Free Trade protesters with a bunch of “back in my day we knew how to really protest” bunk. The cop he’s chatting with convinces him to get involved and show the kids how to actually be effective at communicating. We look at the kids at school these days and wonder how they’re going to accomplish anything with this flailing about and their crazy ideas. We forget how we were in school, though. We’re looking at them and judging their behaviour with more nuanced and experienced perspective. Rather than judging them, perhaps we should be helping them. Supporting them in learning how to be more effective at standing up for both themselves and those around them who need help.
Probably obvious, but I’m an incorrigible optimist about peoples’ motivations. Especially young people. Most folks really want to do the right thing. Lots of debate about what that thing is, of course.
Yes, I find that labeling racists “racists” without trying to whitewash or handwave away their racist bullshit is quite a helpful strategy in life.
Scuzz
3816
Nice handwave. What, you don’t think that’s a micro-aggression, not a trigger warning, why you racist shut your mouth and learn to accept what we tell you. That’s how a lot of it sounds.
I don’t disagree there is too much of it, but to blanket everyone with it is well, pretty damn ignorant. Being a jackass for justice is no better than being a racist.
Trelane
3817
Conservatives have gone after PC because they know it resonates with the middle. The progressive left is too quick to label anyone who deviates from their ideology as racist misogynists. It was effective at first since no one enjoys being called a bigot, but the right stopped caring about the “race card” years ago, and that apathy is now spreading to moderates.
FTFY, as it is pretty patently untrue as written.
Nesrie
3819
So what exactly does this race card buy me again, you know other than being told to go back to places I’ve never lived, awkward questions about my relationships and what my future children might look like… still waiting for this card to pay up.
I feel like the phrase has been being trotted out in that context since the 80’s (I’m thinking in particular of the Morton Downey Jr show) but, doing some quick research I see that the phrase didn’t become popular until the 90’s. In any event, since then, it’s always been used as you describe it and it’s always annoyed me accordingly.
A more mild version would be people getting upset about having to be considerate of those different from them but it’s generally a quick ride from that low level resentment straight to a way of hand waving straight up bigotry.
The new context is even stupider in that it’s now just a convenient label for anything conservatives wish to dismiss. It’s a way of dehumanizing ideas so that they can be quickly written off.
The race card can be played anytime you wish to point out an incident of racism to someone who knows that racism doesn’t exist. That race card inflicts 100 hp of damage on the individual who plays it and allows your opponent to take all of your cards because he or she is white and you are not. You may wish to point out that this rule is inherently racist but that would require you to play the race card so you’re kind of in a bind.
