November 21st

Ya Basta With This Incorrect Use of "Politically Correct!"

Today I'll take on one of the minor things that annoys me about the political shift that's recently taken place in our country--the persistent misuse of the term "politically correct." (Accusing my family and ancestors of being rapists and drug dealers, not gonna go there--at least not today!)

"Politically correct" seems to have become a buzz word for the alt right, or more specifically, a buzz phrase, since it consists of two words. I don't know the origins of the original expression and don't care to research it (anybody?) but I think it's a phenomenon that began in the academic world when the lives and experiences of people other than white hetero males came to be considered legitimate fields of study, as they are and should be.  New, non-offensive expressions were developed  to describe and talk about Blacks, Mexicans, immigrants, homosexuals, etc. True, this new terminology occasionally had a sanitized, neologistic quality that was sometimes annoying to language geeks like this blogger, but the upshot of it all was that there were new ways to talk and write about Other people that would not be insensitive or hurtful; or that might even be based on those people's own cultural preferences or sense of self-determination! And who can argue with that?  (Apparently, now, lots of people!)

Well, the folks who didn't like this new PC language were so oppressed by it, so victimized and even discriminated against  that they reached the point where they just couldn't take it anymore and were inspired by their profoundly wise Fearless Leader to liberate themselves,  to declare their independence from it!

 Like most buzz jargon the new "politically correct" is like a rock that conceals beneath it a myriad of creepy and slimy things that would perish if they were ever exposed to the light of day. These include things like ignorance, hatefulness, and the wish to change, control, or even exterminate the groups of people once referred to by the now outdated PC terminology.  Now at last people are free to be "honest;" to "tell it like it is" or " say what's on their minds!" (Minds?) The small-minded and entitled can finally reclaim their place of privilege in the renewed "greatness" of American society--to the extent, of course, that we still have one.

Yes, language is powerful, but let's call a spade a spade.  "Political Correctness"  has become nothing more than a code term for the civility, compassion, and concern for human dignity that once operated as a deterrent to hate speech, and the vile hatred it expresses.

Emily Peña Murphey