There's wide reaching debate these days about political correctness, whether it's good or bad.
I think the term political correctness is a bad one. I think the term suggests that there's a right answer and a wrong answer, I think I prefer the term political acceptability. The question then becomes not whether the individual using the words is correct politically, but whether what they are saying is acceptable.
At this moment in time, a lot of people think that the political correctness is synonymous with correctness, and I'm going to get back to that in a moment except right now to push back on the idea that something that is politically acceptable is correct.
In 1918, it was not politically acceptable to be divorced, and certainly not a divorced woman. In 1938, it was politically acceptable to round up Jews and send them to concentration camps. In 1958 Jim Crow was considered politically acceptable. Segregation was considered acceptable. In 1968, the naming and shaming of people found in gay bars was considered politically acceptable. Throughout history there are a lot of people who would act in ways that are considered politically acceptable and today we look back on them and realize they were abhorrent.
People today think that political correctness is synonymous with being on the right side of history, I would argue that if you take off the Rose colored glasses and look at what is considered politically acceptable through a critical eye, I think it's safe to say in 50 years people will look back on this time as a dark age. The infantilizing philosophies towards people of color or other minorities are absolutely terrible, but they are fully politically acceptable by the dominant left.
So given that the question is often "should people always be politically correct", and given my changing of the question, the answer is clearly no, absolute deference to political acceptability is obviously unacceptable. As free individuals we must decide how to act not based solely on what society tells us, but on our own reasoned decisions taking social acceptability into account as just one of many things.
I think the term political correctness is a bad one. I think the term suggests that there's a right answer and a wrong answer, I think I prefer the term political acceptability. The question then becomes not whether the individual using the words is correct politically, but whether what they are saying is acceptable.
At this moment in time, a lot of people think that the political correctness is synonymous with correctness, and I'm going to get back to that in a moment except right now to push back on the idea that something that is politically acceptable is correct.
In 1918, it was not politically acceptable to be divorced, and certainly not a divorced woman. In 1938, it was politically acceptable to round up Jews and send them to concentration camps. In 1958 Jim Crow was considered politically acceptable. Segregation was considered acceptable. In 1968, the naming and shaming of people found in gay bars was considered politically acceptable. Throughout history there are a lot of people who would act in ways that are considered politically acceptable and today we look back on them and realize they were abhorrent.
People today think that political correctness is synonymous with being on the right side of history, I would argue that if you take off the Rose colored glasses and look at what is considered politically acceptable through a critical eye, I think it's safe to say in 50 years people will look back on this time as a dark age. The infantilizing philosophies towards people of color or other minorities are absolutely terrible, but they are fully politically acceptable by the dominant left.
So given that the question is often "should people always be politically correct", and given my changing of the question, the answer is clearly no, absolute deference to political acceptability is obviously unacceptable. As free individuals we must decide how to act not based solely on what society tells us, but on our own reasoned decisions taking social acceptability into account as just one of many things.
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