As a frame, "Political Correctness" merges:
1) legitimate concerns about censorship and attempts to limit the boundaries of language and debate
with
2) a hidden critique that implies that there is no merit to all claims that there are unresolved issues relating to race and gender and how power and privilege are allocated in the society; and all attempots to find language that is not offensive.
Progressives should think twice before using the term, and should at least not get sucker punched by not being aware of the roots of its current usage.
Chip Berlet
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org
> [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Seay
> Sent: Friday, July 01, 2005 11:25 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Mailer bloviates
>
>
> I wont comment on his alleged racist statement,
> because I dont know what the context was. His
> statements MAY have been racist, but I dont see where
> he is "bloviating". This statement is undoubtedly
> true:
>
> <<I will remark
> > that political correctness is a toxic to American
> > freedom.
>
> PCness puts a straight-jacket on discussion. It
> replaces sincere reflection and resolution with
> undigested signs: one uses supposedly correct language
> and, poof, magically that makes one anti-racist,
> anti-sexist, etc. Wouldn't it be better to go to the
> thing itself, as ugly as it might be, rather than
> delude ourselves with linguistic mirages?
>
> Thomas
>
>
>
> <<We are at such a point in mankind's evolution where changed
> conditions invalidate all our policies that have been so
> successful even in the recent past, and that presumably have
> constituted the ideal response to a presumably unchanging and
> unchangeable human condition. No wonder we are stupefied and
> confused-but our mistake is the same which many cultures have
> made before us, namely to force a rigid model upon a fluid reality.
>
> Erich Jantsch - "Design for Evolution: Self-Organization and
> Planning in the Life of Human Systems"
>
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