[Ads-l] Antedating of "Politically Correct" (Communist Usage)

[Laurence Horn]

Without getting into the details or being able to provide relevant cites, I was under the impression (based on my own memories) that there was an intermediate state between the second phase ("non-satirical Communist usage”) and the third ("satirical use by conservatives"):  the jocular use by non-purist leftists to mock more hard-core leftists and/or to express a self-deprecation.  I haven’t checked the OED cites to see if this impression is supported there.   

> On Jul 5, 2020, at 3:38 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> The OED's earliest usage of the phrase "politically correct," discovered by me, is dated 1793.  The OED's definition does not focus on the second phase of "politically correct," the non-satirical Communist usage, against which the third phase of "politically correct" (satirical use by conservatives) was a reaction.  In their citations they do include a 1934 cite from a Communist context.  I would suggest that the OED definition should add a sub-sense for Communist usage.  Here is the earliest I have found for that sub-sense:
> 
> 1926 _Daily Worker_ 20 July 4/6 (ProQuest)  It was not an accident but a fairly legitimate and politically correct step of the British Communist Party to issue the slogan: "All power to the general council of the trade unions."
> 
> Fred Shapiro
> 
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org