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

[Ben Zimmer]

Larry's memory is supported by Deborah Cameron's book _Verbal Hygiene_,
which details the intervening phase of self-satirical use by those on the
left (though this phase is often forgotten about). Relevant excerpts from
Ch. 4:

"[S]ome writers have made attempts to pin down the origins and early uses
of the terms 'politically correct' and 'politically incorrect' among
American New Left activists in the 1960s and 1970s.  According to Ruth
Perry, the source from which these groups adopted the phrase was probably
the English translation of Mao's _Little Red Book_. Alternatively, Barbara
Epstein has suggested a connection with 'correct lineism', a term used in
the Communist Party...
"The most common use of 'politically correct' [early on] was *ironic* -- to
quote Maurice Isserman, 'it was always used in a tone mocking the pieties
of our own insular political counterculture, as in "we could stop at
McDonald's down the road if you're hungry-- but it wouldn't be *politically
correct*"'...
"['PC'] functioned on one hand to differentiate the New Left from the
orthodox Marxism it had rejected, and on the other to satirize the group's
own tendency towards humourlessness, self-righteousness and rigid orthodox
'party lines', poking fun at the notion that anyone could be (or would want
to be) wholly 'correct'". (pp. 126-7)

--bgz

On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 3:53 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

> 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."
> >
>

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