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The Roots of PC
More recycled stuff from another on-line venue.
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This discussion on the annoying nature of certain phrases reminds me of Orwell's excellent essay "Politics and the English Language".
"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better."
My memory of the original usage of "politically correct" and "politically incorrect" was one applied by liberal folks to the far left Marxists and Maoists who had a "line" in which to shoehorn reality. Many a head shop in the 60s had buttons, meant to be funny, with those terms on them.
At some point, maybe the early Reagan era, some folks on the right intentionally tried to re-brand a lot of the 60s terminology for their own political uses and these terms were part of that process. I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of intellectual prankstering might not have come from the Dartmouth Review group among others.
Likewise you'd see a lot of related conceptual head faking going on from the right. For just one example of several that come to mind, Dixy Lee Ray's "Trashing the Planet" book which sounds like the title of an environmentalist book when it is anything but that.
Seems like I also recall some right-wing writer trying to assert that Walter Lippman had originated the use of the PC term in a way that fit their revision of the popular 60s usage which implies intentionality in the framing war over that term.
As a final note, Josh Goldberg's book "Liberal Fascism" is an attempt to flip things the other way. Using a term, fascism, typically applied to the right, and trying to attach it to the left.
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning
I didn't read the book but I did watch Goldberg on C-SPAN's BookTV which was enough to conclude that it was well prepared baloney. I worked on a project in grad school on the social theorist Emile Durkheim and the roots of fascism that covered similar territory.
Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
joe_haldeman for directing me to the review of Goldberg's book by Michael Mann of UCLA.
Sticks and Stones - Who Has More Affinity with Fascism - Liberals or Conservatives? - Washington Post - 03 Feb 08
---
This discussion on the annoying nature of certain phrases reminds me of Orwell's excellent essay "Politics and the English Language".
"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better."
My memory of the original usage of "politically correct" and "politically incorrect" was one applied by liberal folks to the far left Marxists and Maoists who had a "line" in which to shoehorn reality. Many a head shop in the 60s had buttons, meant to be funny, with those terms on them.
At some point, maybe the early Reagan era, some folks on the right intentionally tried to re-brand a lot of the 60s terminology for their own political uses and these terms were part of that process. I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of intellectual prankstering might not have come from the Dartmouth Review group among others.
Likewise you'd see a lot of related conceptual head faking going on from the right. For just one example of several that come to mind, Dixy Lee Ray's "Trashing the Planet" book which sounds like the title of an environmentalist book when it is anything but that.
Seems like I also recall some right-wing writer trying to assert that Walter Lippman had originated the use of the PC term in a way that fit their revision of the popular 60s usage which implies intentionality in the framing war over that term.
As a final note, Josh Goldberg's book "Liberal Fascism" is an attempt to flip things the other way. Using a term, fascism, typically applied to the right, and trying to attach it to the left.
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning
I didn't read the book but I did watch Goldberg on C-SPAN's BookTV which was enough to conclude that it was well prepared baloney. I worked on a project in grad school on the social theorist Emile Durkheim and the roots of fascism that covered similar territory.
Thanks to
joe_haldeman for directing me to the review of Goldberg's book by Michael Mann of UCLA. Sticks and Stones - Who Has More Affinity with Fascism - Liberals or Conservatives? - Washington Post - 03 Feb 08