Fwd: "politically correct"

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Anti-Semiticism."  Got it.

  The difficulty is that the meaning of "politically correct" is not quite the same today as it was in the ' 30s.  Back then the usage was limited to people who shared a Marxist standard of "political correctness."  And they were proud of it.

  Today "politically correct" is used almost exclusively as a put-down that can be used as a synonym for anything from "beyond Stalin" to "excessively polite."

  That's why it's so popular..

  JL


Mark David Higbee <mhigbee at EMICH.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Mark David Higbee
Subject: Re: Fwd: "politically correct"
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from Mark Higbee, Professor of History, Eastern Michigan University:

Please excuse a mere historian for speaking up on this, but the term "politically correct"
dates back to the
Communist parties of the 1930s popular front period, or perhaps even earlier, and it was
most certainly then
applied to anti-Semeticism, and to any other form of ethnic and racial prejudice. So I believe
that to criticize
those who ignore Gibson's anti-Semeticism as politically incorrect is a usage consistent with
at least one of the
original purposes of the term.



----- Original Message -----
From: Fred Shapiro
Date: Wednesday, August 9, 2006 5:59 pm
Subject: Re: Fwd: "politically correct"

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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Fred Shapiro
> Subject: Re: Fwd: "politically correct"
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> -----------
>
> On Wed, 9 Aug 2006, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>
> >> Is anyone at the Language Log (or anyone else you know)
> interested in
> >> the evolution of the term "politically correct"? I stumbled
> across a
> >> use that fascinated me, as it seems to have come full circle. It's
> >> about the Mel Gibson thing, and being PC is equated to *not*
> speaking>> out against his anti-semitism:
>
> I don't think there is anything too surprising about this.
> "Politicallycorrect" typically refers to leftist orthodoxies that
> are very concerned
> with multiculturalism, feminism, environmentalism, and a number of
> other-isms, but not usually that concerned with anti-Semitism. For
> variousreasons, anti-anti-Semitism is not particularly hip in
> leftist circles.
> I say this not out of any political or ethnic agenda on my part --
> my own
> instincts are kind of intermediate between p.c. leftism and skepticism
> of same -- but as a straightforward description of political
> realities.
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
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> Fred R. Shapiro Editor
> Associate Librarian for Collections and YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
> Access and Lecturer in Legal Research Yale University Press,
> Yale Law School forthcoming
> e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu
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