I'd like to invite some of the MORE ASTUTE DUers to inform...

[Maddy McCall]

the less astute exactly what "PC" is. Define "Political Correctness" for them and provide the history of this catch phrase for them. Then perhaps they won't toss it around so freely.

I have one especially knowledgeable DUer in mind, and I hope she answers this thread and educates a few DUers who need to be educated on this topic.

One hint: When DUers use the phrase "PC," they are responding just as Republicans want them to respond, since, after all, it was Republicans who invented the phrase.

[Bluebear]

1. PC:

"A phrase that unthinking people use to tell the injured party to 'get over it' when their impolite/insensitive/noninclusive backsides are shown."

I am not the Duer you have in mind but hope ya don't mind that I chimed in. I HATE that phrase.

[Maddy McCall]

3. I indeed invited the more astute DUers to educate the less.

You definitely fit into the former category. :hi:

[Maine Mary]

23. WTF?

Perhaps someome should educate you on social etiquette... oh holier-then-thou :eyes:

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. One post in a phrases website on it

says it had been seen back in 1936!

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/287100.html

[Liberal_Andy]

4. To me, what some call "PC", is just civility.

Golden rule, and all that crap!

[Bluebear]

10. Exactly. I think it is "POLITEically correct"

When people say "Uggh why do we have to be so PC...." I always think "because hopefully that is the IDEAL!"

[Kenneth ken]

5. PC

plain courtesy - I borrowed that from another DUer.

[Lautremont]

6. That's so weird!

I was just considering starting a thread on this exact topic, seeing as how I'm sick and tired of seeing a right-wing catch-phrase tossed around on DU like it actually means something.

OF COURSE it's a creation of the right. Just think about it for two seconds. Compare the concepts of "political correctness" and "treating people with respect," and you'll see two very different things. At some point in the early nineties the right decided to create a verbal weapon they could use against progressive people, and it bugs the shit out of me to see it weilded by unthinking DUers.

I beg of you: stop.


edited for typos

[Kathy in Cambridge]

7. The young'uns have learned the definition of PC from Limbaugh

PC is being civilized. PC is showing respect toward human beings whether they are men, women, religious or ethnic minorities, gay or straight.

It's very simple really...

[ClassWarrior]

8. It's called framing.

It takes one of our main virtues - our empathy for others - and frames it as a snooty liability. It's a vile, disgusting term.

NGU.

[Bunny]

9. When we interfere with people's god-given right to be rude,

ignorant assholes we are being PC.

[ClassWarrior]

11. I LOVE IT!

May I quote you??

<LOL>

NGU.

[Bunny]

12. Certainly.

It seems to all come down to that, doesn't it?

[Bluebear]

24. Well said.

[steve2470]

13. Serious question: is "black" today considered offensive ?

I have heard both black and AA used.

[Maddy McCall]

15. As an historian...

I use both terms.

[steve2470]

16. Black is so much easier to say

I know it isn't an exact descriptor but neither is "white". I don't care if someone calls me white instead of German-American or Caucasian.

[Maddy McCall]

18. Actually, I use black and African American interchangeably.

Did you know that the only time you hyphenate the words is when you are using them as an adjective? I learned this in historical methodology as an undergrad.

"Malcolm X was an African-American man."

"A group of African Americans protested the...."

But when I'm conversing with my black friends, I use black more frequently.

The complaint about having to use "hyphenated American" also started with Republicans, by the way, as if we "lefties" require it for "political correctness." That's just more bullshit from the right. :-)

[Dookus]

19. the problem

with African-American is that you may not be talking about an American at all. So we have to determine if somebody is African-Jamaican, African-Virgin-Islander, African-European, African-Ecuadorian, etc. etc.

[Maddy McCall]

20. True.

Hi! :hi:

[Bluebear]

17. Ever since I heard "black and proud" in the 70's...

I have used it to refer to brothers and sisters of color. I sure hope it's not offensive!

[jonnyblitz]

14. yup, it's right wing terminology just like "partial birth" abortion is. nt

[Kathy in Cambridge]

21. Yes but people who use the term 'partial-birth' abortion

don't get banned.

[jonnyblitz]

22. hmmm...

but it's a made up term by "them". it doesnt exist in the real medical world I have been told. hmmm. do people who use the term "PC" get banned? :shrug:

[kodi]

25. its called the down side of identity politics

the Right use effectively this political position when those who espouse identity politics do not articulate how their plight is actually a blight on all people.

when this happens, the jackels on the right attack gay rights as a special interest, affirmative action as quotas, and a social conscience as know-nothing-bleeding-heartism.

we don't need a better argument.

we need better arguers.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. The original usage was among Marxists

They used it to describe any action or attitude that was not in line with strict Marxist ideology. "No, it isn't politically correct to support this piece of legislation, because it will lull the working class away from their revolutionary mission." That sort of thing.

By the time I was teaching, it was kind of a joke. We referred to coffee from Nicaragua as "politically correct coffee."

The Republican usage came about in the mid to late 1980s with Christopher Cerf's book Political Correctness, which was about the substitution of inoffensive words for offensive ones. Some of the examples cited (e.g. "vertically challenged" for "short") were never actually used, but they became the stuff of urban legends, especially Republican urban legends.

Now Republicans and those deceived by them scream "politcal correctness!" every time someone calls them on acting like insensitive assholes.