[A-List] Political Correctness

[Todd Boyle]

As a newcomer, encountering the phrase "politically correct",
I interpret the words literally, in the dictionary definition.

To my mind the words are a special case of "correct".

It's always useful to examine basic philosophical differences
among the population of this list, or the country or the world:
Is there one universe, having intrinsic and indigenous characteristics?
Or do you and I live in separate universes, unreconciled, occupying
the same 3 dimensional space and times, having different characteristics?

To my mind, we live in a single physical universe and the test
of any hypothesis about this universe is by reference to the
physical, "objective" universe-- the things we can point to, that
we can agree about, that are anchored in the single universe.

That's the meaning of "Correct"...   Politically correct being a special
case of "Correct", its meaning is also empirically verifiable.  It's not
a trick, a scam or propaganda campaign-- the term has merit.

TOdd

At 11:44 AM 9/16/2010, c b wrote:
>From: DALY JAMES <james.irldaly at ntlworld.com>
>
>
>"Political correctness is really a subjective list put together by the few
>to rule the many -- a list of things one must think, say, or do. It affronts
>the right of the individual to establish his or her own beliefs." Mark
>Berley - Source: Argos, Spring 1998 [Information Clearing House]
>**********************
>  Political Correctness at its base is a minimalist version of the golden
>rule, say, "Treat other people with the same respect you would like them to
>treat you
>with."
>Attacks on it are usually right wing, but the above is a leftish sounding
>attack. It stresses the individual's right to self-expression, to the
>detriment of the common good, which involves and requires the right of
>others to be
>respected.
>One debating ploy is to identify the well justified moral demand for
>socially and politically decent behaviour with demands such as to use
>ludicrous euphemisms, an example of which would be "folically challenged"
>for "bald". ? JD
>
>^^^^^^^
>CB: I agree with you , James.
>
>This is one of my pet peeves.  The terms "politically correct" or
>"correct" for short, are necessary and fundamental to left and
>socialist discourse. The goal of deriving politically correct
>positions on the myriad of issues that arrive is entirely appropriate.
>  Of course, in aiming for this goal, one does not claim that one will
>never make mistakes or draw incorrect conclusions. But to proceed as
>if the liberal posture that "all ideas are equally valid",  phony
>universal tolerance, is patently wrong, shall we say. incorrect
>(smile).  We need a term to refer to conclusions from thinking hard
>about political issues, the type of thing we put much of our effort
>into
>
>My observation is that the bourgeois media was the first to attack the
>terms "politically correct" or "correct" in a political context. I
>remember news commentators speaking mockingly of the idea about 10 or
>15 years ago.  Then the non-Marxist liberal-left took it up, in the
>vein of faux liberation from Marxist "rigidity" and "dogma".  The rest
>is history. There was even a television show with the title "Political
>Correctness", in a sarcastic tone. It lumps firm left positions with
>rightwing and Establishment dogmas and controlling ideas.
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