[lbo-talk] On the term, "Political correctness"

[Carrol Cox]

I believe I have responded negatively, I hope in fact I have responded quite
nastily, to anyone on this list who used the term "political correctness."
My position was that the term  could not be separated from reactionary
politics, and for leftists to use it (in any tone) was to give aid and
comfort to the enemy. Sometimes language can be resisted, thereby wrenching
a term from its established meaning, but this is not true of the term
"political  correctness." It is impossible to empty it of reactionary
import.


>From Harper's weekly review: 

... and a federal judge ruled that the stop-and-frisk tactics employed by
the New York City Police Department amount to racial profiling and violate
the Constitution. "When it comes to policing," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg,
who opposed the decision, "political correctness is deadly."

That is (as it were) the _correct_ use of the term, and any leftists who
uses the term gives aid and comfort to those who, like Bloomberg, use it for
really vicious purposes.

Carrol