I came across a speech by Peter Thiel in The New Criterion. I recently read his book Zero to One with interest so I thought I would read the article. I found his explanation of where the term “politically correct” originated very informative.
“The idea I always come back to, one that strikes me as very suggestive, is the etymology of the term “political correctness” itself.
“By the 1980s, political correctness was something conservatives used as an epithet to describe deranged dittoheads on the left. If you go back to the 1970s, it was actually used by very progressive people as a term of self-congratulation. But if you go back to the 1950s, and strip away all the connotations that accrued over time—if you were a “politically correct” person in 1950, it meant that you followed directions from Moscow as a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. The totalitarian impulse, with its extraordinary demands on the individual conscience, is baked into the very notion of political correctness. We should think about that. Striving for diversity, especially diversity of thought, can be good. But anyone who prizes liberty—conservatives, libertarians, classical liberals, and the rest—must never lose sight of the cosmic battle against atheist communism.”
It is sometimes amazing how terms keep evolving in our American English. Part of that change is because of the philosophy of Deconstructionalism but a lot of it is just the nature of our culture. It is why I don’t generally rely on the King James Version of the Bible. When simple words like “conversation” in that translation really means life style it makes me wonder what else I am misunderstanding.
I am used to modern slang constantly bringing new words into the daily excuse for conversation. About the only word that has not changed is “cool”. That will probably start to change now that I said that.
It would seem that politically correct has gone full circle. We now have a group of Marxists in control who once again are punishing anyone for stepping out of the circle the party has drawn. Either be correct or get cancelled.
Karl would have been proud.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.