Political correctness#Conservative political correctness

{{Main|Party line (politics)}}

In the early-to-mid 20th century, the phrase politically correct was used to describe strict adherence to a range of ideological orthodoxies within politics. In 1934, The New York Times reported that Nazi Germany was granting reporting permits "only to pure 'Aryans' whose opinions are politically correct".

The term political correctness first appeared in Marxist–Leninist vocabulary following the Russian Revolution of 1917. At that time, it was used to describe strict adherence to the policies and principles of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, that is, the party line.{{cite web |title=political correctness |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/political-correctness |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=9 April 2022 |archive-date=7 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407080901/https://www.britannica.com/topic/political-correctness |url-status=live }} Later in the United States, the phrase came to be associated with accusations of dogmatism in debates between communists and socialists. According to American educator Herbert Kohl, writing about debates in New York in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

{{blockquote|The term "politically correct" was used disparagingly, to refer to someone whose loyalty to the CP line overrode compassion, and led to bad politics. It was used by Socialists against Communists, and was meant to separate out Socialists who believed in egalitarian moral ideas from dogmatic Communists who would advocate and defend party positions regardless of their moral substance.|"Uncommon Differences"|The Lion and the Unicorn}}

{{Main|New Left}}

In the 1970s, the American New Left began using the term politically correct.Ruth Perry, (1992), "A Short History of the Term 'Politically Correct'", in Beyond PC: Toward a Politics of Understanding, by Patricia Aufderheide, 1992, {{ISBN|978-1555971649}} In the essay The Black Woman: An Anthology (1970), Toni Cade Bambara said that "a man cannot be politically correct and a [male] chauvinist, too". William Safire records this as the first use in the typical modern sense.{{cite book |last1=Safire |first1=William |url=https://archive.org/details/safirespolitical00safi |title=Safire's political dictionary |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0195343342 |edition=Rev. |location=New York [u.a.] |author-link=William Safire |url-access=registration}} The term political correctness was believed to have been revived by the New Left through familiarity in the West with Mao's Little Red Book, in which Mao stressed holding to the correct party line. The term rapidly began to be used by the New Left in an ironic or self-deprecating sense.{{cite book |last= Hughes |first= Geoffrey|date=2011 |title=Political Correctness A History of Semantics and Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zzw9WabmmVwC&dq=political+correctness+communist+party&pg=PT49 |publisher= Wiley |isbn=9781444360295}}

Thereafter, the term was often used as self-critical satire. Debra L. Shultz said that "throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the New Left, feminists, and progressives... used their term 'politically correct' ironically, as a guard against their own orthodoxy in social change efforts".{{Cite book |first=Debra L. |last=Schultz |year=1993 |title=To Reclaim a Legacy of Diversity: Analyzing the 'Political Correctness' Debates in Higher Education |location=New York |publisher=National Council for Research on Women |isbn=978-1880547137 |url=http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED364170.pdf |access-date=28 March 2016 |archive-date=10 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310085256/http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED364170.pdf |url-status=live}} PC is used in the comic book Merton of the Movement, by Bobby London, which was followed by the term ideologically sound, in the comic strips of Bart Dickon.{{Cite journal |url=http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3027/a_politically_correct_lexicon/ |title=A Politically Correct Lexicon |journal=In These Times |first=Joel |last=Bleifuss |date=February 2007 |access-date=20 March 2010 |archive-date=29 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629085359/http://inthesetimes.com/article/3027/a_politically_correct_lexicon/ }} In her essay "Toward a feminist Revolution" (1992) Ellen Willis said, "In the early eighties, when feminists used the term 'political correctness', it was used to refer sarcastically to the anti-pornography movement's efforts to define a 'feminist sexuality'."Willis, Ellen. "Toward a Feminist Revolution", in No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays (1992) Wesleyan University Press, {{ISBN|081955250X}}, p. 19.

Stuart Hall suggests one way in which the original use of the term may have developed into the modern one:

{{blockquote|According to one version, political correctness actually began as an in-joke on the left: radical students on American campuses acting out an ironic replay of the Bad Old Days BS (Before the Sixties) when every revolutionary groupuscule had a party line about everything. They would address some glaring examples of sexist or racist behaviour by their fellow students in imitation of the tone of voice of the Red Guards or Cultural Revolution Commissar: "Not very 'politically correct', Comrade!"{{cite web |first=Stuart |last=Hall |author-link=Stuart Hall (cultural theorist) |year=1994 |url=http://www.ram-wan.net/restrepo/hall/some%20politically%20incorrect%20pathways.pdf |title=Some 'Politically Incorrect' Pathways Through PC |work=S. Dunant (ed.) The War of the Words: The Political Correctness Debate |pages=164–84 |access-date=30 May 2013 |archive-date=19 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719135226/https://www.ram-wan.net/restrepo/hall/some%20politically%20incorrect%20pathways.pdf |url-status=live }}}}

Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, a book first published in 1987, heralded a debate about "political correctness" in American higher education in the 1980s and 1990s.{{cite journal|last1=Kamiya|first1=Gary|title=Civilization & Its Discontents|journal=San Francisco Chronicle Magazine|date=22 January 1995|url=http://www.sfgate.com/magazine/article/Civilization-Its-Discontents-3152155.php|access-date=16 November 2015|archive-date=28 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228042025/https://www.sfgate.com/magazine/article/Civilization-Its-Discontents-3152155.php|url-status=live}} Professor of English literary and cultural studies at CMU Jeffrey J. Williams wrote that the "assault on ... political correctness that simmered through the Reagan years, gained bestsellerdom with Bloom's Closing of the American Mind".{{cite book|last1=Williams|first1=Jeffrey|title=PC Wars: Politics and Theory in the Academy|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1136656231|page=11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VaVlAgAAQBAJ|access-date=28 October 2015|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010142522/https://books.google.com/books?id=VaVlAgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}} According to Z.F. Gamson, Bloom's book "attacked the faculty for 'political correctness'".{{cite journal |last1= Gamson|first1=Z.F.|title=The Stratification of the Academy|journal= Social Text|date= 1997|volume=51|issue=51|pages=67–73|doi=10.2307/466647|jstor=466647}} Prof. of Social Work at CSU Tony Platt says the "campaign against 'political correctness'" was launched by Bloom's book in 1987.{{cite journal|last1=Platt|first1=Tony|title=Desegregating Multiculturalism: Problems in the Theory and Pedagogy of Diversity Education|journal=Pedagogies for Social Change|via=Social Justice|volume=29|issue=4 (90)|url=http://www.socialjusticejournal.org/archive/90_29_4/90_04Platt.pdf|access-date=28 October 2015|archive-date=7 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211007175758/http://www.socialjusticejournal.org/archive/90_29_4/90_04Platt.pdf|url-status=live}}

An October 1990 New York Times article by Richard Bernstein is credited with popularizing the term.{{cite book|editor-last1=Valdes|editor-first1=Francisco|editor-last2=Culp|editor-first2=Jerome McCristal|editor-last3=Harris|editor-first3=Angela P.|title=Crossroads, directions, and a new critical race theory|date=2002|publisher=Temple University Press|location=Philadelphia|isbn=978-1566399302|pages=59, 65|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dCedxQu542UC|access-date=21 October 2015|archive-date=30 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730022119/https://books.google.com/books?id=dCedxQu542UC|url-status=live}}Browne, Anthony (2006). "[https://www.civitas.org.uk/archive/pubs/Browne_cs47.php The Retreat of Reason: Political Correctness and the Corruption of Public Debate in Modern Britain] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140503050240/http://www.civitas.org.uk/pubs/Browne_cs47.php|date=3 May 2014}}". Civitas. {{ISBN|1903386500}}. At this time, the term was mainly being used within academia: "Across the country the term p.c., as it is commonly abbreviated, is being heard more and more in debates over what should be taught at the universities." Nexis citations in "arcnews/curnews" reveal only seventy total citations in articles to "political correctness" for 1990; but one year later, Nexis records 1,532 citations, with a steady increase to more than 7,000 citations by 1994.{{cite journal|last1=Cho|first1=Sumi|title=Essential Politics|journal=Harvard Law Review|date=1997 |volume= 433}} In May 1991, The New York Times had a follow-up article, according to which the term was increasingly being used in a wider public arena:

{{blockquote|What has come to be called "political correctness", a term that began to gain currency at the start of the academic year last fall, has spread in recent months and has become the focus of an angry national debate, mainly on campuses, but also in the larger arenas of American life.|Robert D. McFadden, "Political Correctness: New Bias Test?", 1991}}

The previously obscure far-left term became common currency in the lexicon of the conservative social and political challenges against progressive teaching methods and curriculum changes in the secondary schools and universities of the U.S.{{cite journal | title=Media Coverage of the "Political Correctness" Debate |last1=Whitney |first1=D. Charles |last2=Wartella |first2=Ellen |name-list-style=amp | journal=Journal of Communication | year=1992 | volume=42 | issue=2 |pages=83 | doi = 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1992.tb00780.x }}{{harvp|D'Souza|1991}}, {{harvp|Berman|1992}}, {{harvp|Schultz|1993}}, {{harvp|Messer-Davidow|1995}}, {{harvp|Scatamburlo|1998}} Policies, behavior, and speech codes that the speaker or the writer regarded as being the imposition of a liberal orthodoxy, were described and criticized as "politically correct". In May 1991, at a commencement ceremony for a graduating class of the University of Michigan, then U.S. President George H. W. Bush used the term in his speech: "The notion of political correctness has ignited controversy across the land. And although the movement arises from the laudable desire to sweep away the debris of racism and sexism and hatred, it replaces old prejudice with new ones. It declares certain topics off-limits, certain expression off-limits, even certain gestures off-limits."George H. W. Bush, at the University of Michigan (4 May 1991), [http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/papers/1991/91050401.html Remarks at the University of Michigan Commencement Ceremony in Ann Arbor] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040516105827/http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/papers/1991/91050401.html |date=16 May 2004 }}, 4 May 1991. George Bush Presidential Library.

{{cite book|last=Aufderheide|first=Patricia|title=Beyond PC: Toward a Politics of Understanding|date=1992|publisher=Graywolf Press|location=Saint Paul, Minn.|isbn=978-1555971649|page=[https://archive.org/details/beyondpctowardpo00aufd/page/227 227]|url=https://archive.org/details/beyondpctowardpo00aufd/page/227}}{{cite book|last1=Meaghan|first1=Morris|title=New Keywords a Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society.|date=2013|publisher=Wiley|location=Hoboken|isbn=978-1118725412|url=http://www.springerin.at/dyn/heft_text.php?textid=1599&lang=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151118005632/http://www.springerin.at/dyn/heft_text.php?textid=1599&lang=en|archive-date=18 November 2015}}

After 1991, its use as a pejorative phrase became widespread amongst conservatives in the US. It became a key term encapsulating conservative concerns about the left in cultural and political debates extending beyond academia. Two articles on the topic in late 1990 in Forbes and Newsweek both used the term "thought police" in their headlines, exemplifying the tone of the new usage, but it was Dinesh D'Souza's Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (1991) which "captured the press's imagination". These trends were at least in part a response to multiculturalism and the rise of identity politics, with movements such as feminism, gay rights movements and ethnic minority movements. That response received funding from conservative foundations and think tanks such as the John M. Olin Foundation, which funded several books such as D'Souza's.Wilson, John. 1995. [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780822317135 The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on High Education]. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. p. 26.

Herbert Kohl, in 1992, commented that a number of neoconservatives who promoted the use of the term "politically correct" in the early 1990s were former Communist Party members, and, as a result, familiar with the Marxist use of the phrase. He argued that in doing so, they intended "to insinuate that egalitarian democratic ideas are actually authoritarian, orthodox, and Communist-influenced, when they oppose the right of people to be racist, sexist, and homophobic".

During the 1990s, conservative and right-wing politicians, think tanks, and speakers adopted the phrase as a pejorative descriptor of their ideological enemies, especially in the context of the culture wars about language and the content of public-school curricula. Roger Kimball, in Tenured Radicals, endorsed Frederick Crews's view that PC is best described as "Left Eclecticism", a term defined by Kimball as "any of a wide variety of anti-establishment modes of thought from structuralism and poststructuralism, deconstruction, and Lacanian analyst to feminist, homosexual, black, and other patently political forms of criticism".

Liberal commentators have argued that the conservatives and reactionaries who used the term did so in an effort to divert political discussion away from the substantive matters of resolving societal discrimination,{{Cite journal |last=Lauter |first=Paul |date=1993 |title='Political Correctness' and the Attack on American Colleges |journal=The Radical Teacher |issue=44 |pages=34–40 |jstor=20709784 |issn=0191-4847}}{{Cite book |last=Axtell |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ca6-q60ig5kC |title=The Pleasures of Academe: A Celebration & Defense of Higher Education |date=1998-01-01 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-1049-3 |language=en}}{{cite book |title=Soldiers of Misfortune: The New Right's Culture War and the Politics of Political Correctness |url=https://archive.org/details/soldiersofmisfor0000scat |url-access=registration |first=Valerie L. |last=Scatamburlo |date=1998 |location=New York|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=9780820430126 }} such as racial, social class, gender, and legal inequality, against people whom conservatives do not consider part of the social mainstream.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Messer-Davidow |first=E. |date=1995 |title=Manufacturing the Attack on Liberalized Higher Education: The Humanities and Society in the 1990s |editor-first1=C. |editor-last1=Newfield |editor-first2=R. |editor-last2=Strickland |encyclopedia=After Political Correctness: The Humanities and Society in the 1990s |pages=38–78 |publisher=Westview}}

{{cite book |title=The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things: Crime, Drugs, Minorities, Teen Moms, Killer Kids, Mutant Microbes, Plane Crashes, Road Rage, & So Much More |first=Barry |last=Glassner |date=5 January 2010 }} Jan Narveson wrote that "that phrase was born to live between scare-quotes: it suggests that the operative considerations in the area so called are merely political, steamrolling the genuine reasons of principle for which we ought to be acting...". Commenting in 2001, one such British journalist,{{cite book|last1=Tomlinson|first1=Sally|title=Race and education: policy and politics in Britain|date=2008|publisher=Open University Press|location=Maidenhead [u.a]|isbn=978-0335223077|page=161|edition=[Online-Ausg.].|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-0jqaa-73mgC&pg=PA161|access-date=5 October 2015|archive-date=30 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730112845/https://books.google.com/books?id=-0jqaa-73mgC&pg=PA161|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=Dekker|first1=Teun J.|title=Paying Our High Public Officials: Evaluating the Political Justifications of Top Wages in the Public Sector|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|series=Research in Public Administration and Public Policy|isbn=978-1135131265|page=119|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bx9h0XuYSlUC&pg=PA119|access-date=16 October 2015|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010134734/https://books.google.com/books?id=bx9h0XuYSlUC&pg=PA119|url-status=live}} Polly Toynbee, said "the phrase is an empty, right-wing smear, designed only to elevate its user",Toynbee, Polly. [http://society.guardian.co.uk/regeneration/comment/0,7941,617436,00.html "Religion Must be Removed from all Functions of State"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070811125942/http://society.guardian.co.uk/regeneration/comment/0,7941,617436,00.html |date=11 August 2007 }}, The Guardian, 12 December 2001 – Accessed 6 February 2007. and in 2010 she wrote "the phrase 'political correctness' was born as a coded cover for all who still want to say Paki, spastic, or queer".{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/apr/28/toynbee-equality-bill-welfare|work=The Guardian|location=London|title=This Bold Equality Push is just what We Needed. In 1997|first=Polly|last=Toynbee|author-link=Polly Toynbee|date=28 April 2009|access-date=22 May 2010|archive-date=5 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105201608/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/apr/28/toynbee-equality-bill-welfare|url-status=live}} Another British journalist, Will Hutton,{{cite book|last1=Albrow|first1=Martin|title=The global age state and society beyond modernity|date=1997|publisher=Stanford University Press|location=Stanford, Calif.|isbn=978-0804728706|pages=215|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZwmdxMMjOd4C&pg=PA215|access-date=22 October 2015|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729144344/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZwmdxMMjOd4C&pg=PA215|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=The Economist: Will Hutton, p. 81|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbtIAAAAYAAJ|newspaper=The Economist|publisher=Economist Newspaper Limited|date=2002|access-date=22 October 2015|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010141432/https://books.google.com/books?id=tbtIAAAAYAAJ|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=Gyuris|first1=Ferenc|title=The Political Discourse of Spatial Disparities Geographical Inequalities Between Science and Propaganda|date=2014|publisher=Springer International Publishing|location=Cham|isbn=978-3319015088|pages=68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BzG8BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA68|access-date=22 October 2015|archive-date=20 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920144856/https://books.google.com/books?id=BzG8BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA68|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=Hutton|first1=Will|author-link=Will Hutton|title=How Good We Can Be: Ending the Mercenary Society and Building a Great Country|date=2015|isbn=978-1408705322|publisher=Hachette UK|page=80|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=01fXBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT80|access-date=22 October 2015|archive-date=19 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919151104/https://books.google.com/books?id=01fXBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT80|url-status=live}} wrote in 2001:Hutton, Will. [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,,619644,00.html "Words really are important, Mr Blunkett" ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080131211145/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,,619644,00.html |date=31 January 2008 }} The Observer, Sunday 16 December 2001 – Accessed 6 February 2007.

{{blockquote|Political correctness is one of the brilliant tools that the American Right developed in the mid–1980s, as part of its demolition of American liberalism.... What the sharpest thinkers on the American Right saw quickly was that by declaring war on the cultural manifestations of liberalism – by levelling the charge of "political correctness" against its exponents – they could discredit the whole political project.|Will Hutton, "Words Really are Important, Mr Blunkett", 2001}}

Glenn Loury wrote in 1994 that to address the subject of "political correctness" when power and authority within the academic community is being contested by parties on either side of that issue, is to invite scrutiny of one's arguments by would-be "friends" and "enemies". Combatants from the left and the right will try to assess whether a writer is "for them" or "against them".{{cite journal|url= http://www.econ.brown.edu/fac/Glenn_Loury/louryhomepage/papers/Loury_Political_Correctness.pdf|last1=Loury|first1=G. C.|author-link=Glenn Loury|title=Self-Censorship in Public Discourse: A Theory of "Political Correctness" and Related Phenomena|journal=Rationality and Society|date=1 October 1994|volume=6|issue=4|pages=428–61|doi= 10.1177/1043463194006004002|s2cid=143057168|access-date=28 October 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151123003439/http://www.econ.brown.edu/fac/Glenn_Loury/louryhomepage/papers/Loury_Political_Correctness.pdf|archive-date=23 November 2015}} Geoffrey Hughes suggested that debate over political correctness concerns whether changing language actually solves political and social problems, with critics viewing it less about solving problems than imposing censorship, intellectual intimidation and demonstrating the moral purity of those who practice it. Hughes also argues that political correctness tends to be pushed by a minority rather than an organic form of language change.{{cite book|last=Hughes|first=Geoffrey|year=2015|title=An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-Speaking World|publisher=Routledge|pages=348–349}}

"Political correctness" is a label typically used to describe liberal or left-wing terms and actions but rarely used for analogous attempts to mold language and behavior on the right.{{cite web|last1=Adams|first1=Joshua|title=Time for equal media treatment of 'political correctness'|url=https://www.cjr.org/criticism/political-correctness-journalism.php?curator=MediaREDEF|work=Columbia Journalism Review|date=12 June 2017|access-date=15 June 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20170831092315/https://www.cjr.org/criticism/political-correctness-journalism.php|archive-date=31 August 2017}} Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute referred to the right's own version of political correctness as "patriotic correctness".{{cite news|last1=Nowrasteh|first1=Alex|title=The right has its own version of political correctness. It's just as stifling.|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/12/07/the-right-has-its-own-version-of-political-correctness-its-just-as-stifling/|access-date=19 December 2016|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=7 December 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20161208211732/https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/12/07/the-right-has-its-own-version-of-political-correctness-its-just-as-stifling/|archive-date=8 December 2016}}

The modern pejorative usage of the term emerged from conservative criticism of the New Left in the late 20th century. This usage was popularized by a number of articles in The New York Times and other media throughout the 1990s,{{cite book|editor-last1=Berman|editor-first1=Paul|title=Debating P.C.: the controversy over political correctness on college campuses|date=1992|isbn=978-0307801784|page=Introduction|publisher=Random House Publishing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6XflI-OaALAC&q=Berman%20Debating%20PC&pg=PP1|access-date=2 January 2022|archive-date=3 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220103133600/https://books.google.com/books?id=6XflI-OaALAC&q=Berman+Debating+PC&pg=PP1|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=Dorothy E.|title=Writing the social: critique, theory, and investigations|date=1999|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto (Ont.)|isbn=978-0802081353|page=175|edition=Repr.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XICxNH7EH_MC|access-date=22 October 2015|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010134937/https://books.google.com/books?id=XICxNH7EH_MC|url-status=live}}{{cite journal|last1=Schwartz|first1=Howard S.|title=Psychodynamics of Political Correctness|journal=Journal of Applied Behavioral Science|date=1997|volume=33|issue=2|pages=133–49|doi=10.1177/0021886397332003|s2cid=144305581|url=http://www.sba.oakland.edu/faculty/schwartz/pcjabs.htm|access-date=21 October 2015|archive-date=3 October 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091003123819/http://www.sba.oakland.edu/faculty/schwartz/PCJABS.htm|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Bernstein|first1=Richard|title=Ideas & Trends: The Rising Hegemony of the Politically Correct|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/28/weekinreview/ideas-trends-the-rising-hegemony-of-the-politically-correct.html?pagewanted=all|author-link=Richard Bernstein (journalist)|work=The New York Times|date=28 October 1990|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-date=12 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211012023341/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/28/weekinreview/ideas-trends-the-rising-hegemony-of-the-politically-correct.html?pagewanted=all|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=McFadden|first1=Robert D.|title=Political Correctness: New Bias Test?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/05/us/political-correctness-new-bias-test.html|work=The New York Times|date=5 May 1991|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-date=23 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023033910/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/05/us/political-correctness-new-bias-test.html|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=Heteren|first1=Annette Gomis van|title=Political correctness in context: the PC controversy in America|date=1997|publisher=Universidad de Almería, Servicio de Publicaciones|location=Almería|isbn=978-8482400839|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1qRWJESNbsC|page=148|access-date=19 October 2015|archive-date=12 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412192446/https://books.google.com/books?id=s1qRWJESNbsC|url-status=live}} and was widely used in the debate surrounding Allan Bloom's 1987 book The Closing of the American Mind.{{cite book|last1=Bellow|first1=Allan Bloom |title=The closing of the American mind|date=1988|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York|isbn=978-0671657154|edition=1st Touchstone|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AMuZvBwfRYMC|access-date=19 November 2020|archive-date=12 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412192444/https://books.google.com/books?id=AMuZvBwfRYMC|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=Robinson|first1=Sally|title=Marked men white masculinity in crisis|date=2000|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0231500364|pages=17, 55–86|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1fA5eFUAO_AC|access-date=19 October 2015|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010135850/https://books.google.com/books?id=1fA5eFUAO_AC|url-status=live}} The term gained further currency in response to Roger Kimball's Tenured Radicals (1990),{{cite book |last1= Kimball|first1=Roger|title=Tenured radicals: how politics has corrupted our higher education |date=1990 |publisher=Harper & Row – Originally University of Michigan|location=New York|isbn=978-0060161903|edition=1st}} and conservative author Dinesh D'Souza's 1991 book Illiberal Education.{{cite book|last1=D'Souza|first1=Dinesh|author-link=Dinesh D'Souza|title=Illiberal education: the politics of race and sex on campus|date=1991|publisher=Free Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0684863849|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WUcWaePccnkC|access-date=20 November 2015|archive-date=12 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412192443/https://books.google.com/books?id=WUcWaePccnkC|url-status=live}} Supporters of politically correct language have been pejoratively referred to as the "language police".{{Cite web |title=On the Follies of the Politically Correct Language Police {{!}} Psychology Today |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/homo-consumericus/201312/the-follies-the-politically-correct-language-police |access-date=2022-07-11 |website=www.psychologytoday.com |language=en |archive-date=16 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220816100227/https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/homo-consumericus/201312/the-follies-the-politically-correct-language-police |url-status=live }}

Modern debate on the term was sparked by conservative critiques of perceived liberal bias in academia and education, and conservatives have since used it as a major line of attack.

Preliminary research published in 2020 indicated that students at a large U.S. public university generally felt instructors were open-minded and encouraged free expression of diverse viewpoints; nonetheless, most students worried about the consequences of voicing their political opinions, with "[a]nxieties about expressing political views and self-censorship ... more prevalent among students who identify as conservative".Larson, Jennifer, Mark McNeilly, and Timothy J. Ryan. "[https://fecdsurveyreport.web.unc.edu/files/2020/02/UNC-Free-Expression-Report.pdf Free Expression and Constructive Dialogue at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223145026/https://fecdsurveyreport.web.unc.edu/files/2020/02/UNC-Free-Expression-Report.pdf |date=23 December 2020 }}." Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina (5 February 2020).{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/evidence-conservative-students-really-do-self-censor/606559/|title=Evidence That Conservative Students Really Do Self-Censor|last=Friedersdorf|first=Conor|date=16 February 2020|website=The Atlantic|language=en-US|access-date=16 February 2020|archive-date=11 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111230142/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/evidence-conservative-students-really-do-self-censor/606559/|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory}}

Some conservative commentators in the West argue that "political correctness" and multiculturalism are part of a conspiracy with the ultimate goal of undermining Judeo-Christian values. This theory, which holds that political correctness originates from the critical theory of the Frankfurt School as part of a conspiracy that its proponents call "Cultural Marxism".{{cite book|title=The Post-War Anglo-American Far Right: A Special Relationship of Hate|last=Jamin|first=Jérôme|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2014|isbn=978-1137396198|editor1-last=Shekhovtsov|editor1-first=A.|location=Basingstoke|pages=84–103|chapter=Cultural Marxism and the Radical Right|doi=10.1057/9781137396211_4 |editor2-last=Jackson|editor2-first=P.|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/postwarangloamer0000unse/page/84 |chapter-url-access=registration |access-date=31 January 2023}}{{cite book|title=Cultures of Post-War British Fascism|last=Richardson|first=John E.|date=2015|isbn=9781317539360|editor1-last=Copsey|editor1-first=Nigel|chapter='Cultural-Marxism' and the British National Party: a transnational discourse|publisher=Routledge |editor2-last=Richardson|editor2-first=John E.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HIwGCAAAQBAJ|access-date=12 August 2015|archive-date=29 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929062019/https://books.google.com/books?id=HIwGCAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}} The theory originated with Michael Minnicino's 1992 essay "New Dark Age: Frankfurt School and 'Political Correctness'", published in a Lyndon LaRouche movement journal.Jay, Martin (2010), "[https://web.archive.org/web/20111124045123/http://cms.skidmore.edu/salmagundi/backissues/168-169/martin-jay-frankfurt-school-as-scapegoat.cfm Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment: The Frankfurt School as Scapegoat of the Lunatic Fringe]". Salmagundi (Fall 2010–Winter 2011, 168–69): 30–40. In 2001, conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan wrote in The Death of the West that "political correctness is cultural Marxism", and that "its trademark is intolerance".Buchanan, Patrick. The Death of the West, p. 89.

{{See also|Media bias}}

In the US, the term has been widely used in books and journals, but in Britain the usage has been confined mainly to the popular press.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pKmTAgAAQBAJ|title=Political Correctness and Higher Education: British and American Perspectives|last1=Lea|first1=John|date=2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1135895884|access-date=28 October 2015|archive-date=12 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412201758/https://books.google.com/books?id=pKmTAgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}} Many such authors and popular-media figures, particularly on the right, have used the term to criticize what they see as bias in the media. William McGowan argues that journalists get stories wrong or ignore stories worthy of coverage, because of what McGowan perceives to be their liberal ideologies and their fear of offending minority groups.{{cite book|title=Coloring the news: how political correctness has corrupted American journalism|last1=McGowan|first1=William|date=2003|publisher=Encounter Books|isbn=978-1893554603|edition=[New postscript].|location=San Francisco, Calif.}} Robert Novak, in his essay "Political Correctness Has No Place in the Newsroom", used the term to blame newspapers for adopting language use policies that he thinks tend to excessively avoid the appearance of bias. He argued that political correctness in language not only destroys meaning but also demeans the people who are meant to be protected.{{cite news|url=https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-16805698/political-correctness-has-no-place-in-the-newsroom|title=Political Correctness Has No Place in the Newsroom|last1=Novak|first1=Robert|date=March 1995|access-date=28 October 2015|work=USA Today|archive-date=29 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629061809/https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-16805698/political-correctness-has-no-place-in-the-newsroom|url-status=live}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FK7hAAAAMAAJ|title=Mass Media|last1=Gorham|first1=Joan|date=1996|publisher=Dushkin Publishing Group, Indiana University|isbn=9780697316110|access-date=28 October 2015|archive-date=4 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104213031/https://books.google.com/books?id=FK7hAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}{{cite book|title=Media Bias|last1=Sloan|first1=David |last2=Mackay|first2=Jenn |date=2007 |publisher=McFarland & Company|isbn=978-0786455058|page=112}}

Authors David Sloan and Emily Hoff claim that in the US, journalists shrug off concerns about political correctness in the newsroom, equating the political correctness criticisms with the old "liberal media bias" label.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c6LhAAAAMAAJ|title=Contemporary media issues|last1=Sloan|first1=David|last2=Hoff|first2=Emily|date=1998|publisher=Vision Press, Indiana University|isbn=978-1885219107|location=Northport|page=63|ref=Sloan|access-date=28 October 2015|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010135551/https://books.google.com/books?id=c6LhAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}} According to author John Wilson, left-wing forces of "political correctness" have been blamed for unrelated censorship, with Time citing campaigns against violence on network television in the US as contributing to a "mainstream culture [that] has become cautious, sanitized, scared of its own shadow" because of "the watchful eye of the p.c. police", protests and advertiser boycotts targeting TV shows are generally organized by right-wing religious groups campaigning against violence, sex, and depictions of homosexuality on television.Wilson, John. 1995. [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780822317135 The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on High Education]. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. p. [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780822317135/page/7 7] {{ISBN|978-0822317135}}.

{{Main|Inclusive language}}

Inclusive or Equity Language is a language style that avoids expressions that its proponents perceive as expressing or implying ideas that are sexist, racist, or otherwise biased, prejudiced, or insulting to any particular group of people; and instead uses language intended to avoid offense and fulfill the ideals of egalitarianism. This language style is sometimes referred to as a type of "political correctness", either as a neutral description or with negative connotations by its opponents.{{Cite podcast |title=The Limits Of Political Correctness (panel discussion) |date=17 February 2015 |url=https://think.kera.org/2015/02/17/the-battle-over-political-correctness/ |access-date=30 May 2022 |website=Think |publisher=KERA (FM) |first=Krys |last=Boyd |language=en-US}} At least some supporters deny an association between the two ("Political correctness is focused on not offending whereas inclusive language is focused on honoring people's identities.").{{cite web |title=Inclusive Language Standards |url=https://www1.udel.edu/itwebdev/help/dei.html#:~:text=%22Inclusive%20language%20is%20not%20the,focused%20on%20honoring%20people's%20identities. |website=University of Delaware |access-date=25 April 2023}}

Political correctness is often satirized, for example in The PC Manifesto (1992) by Saul Jerushalmy and Rens Zbignieuw X,{{cite web|url=http://www.fiction.net/tidbits/politics/pc.html|title=TidBits: The PC Manifesto|publisher=Fiction.net|access-date=1 June 2009|archive-date=7 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211007193505/http://www.fiction.net/tidbits/politics/pc.html|url-status=live}} and Politically Correct Bedtime Stories (1994) by James Finn Garner, which presents fairy tales re-written from an exaggerated politically correct perspective. In 1994, the comedy film PCU took a look at political correctness on a college campus. Other examples include the television program Politically Incorrect, George Carlin's "Euphemisms" routine,{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} and The Politically Correct Scrapbook.{{cite web|url= http://www.capc.co.uk/PC%20_Scrapbook_Main.htm|title=Book – Buy Now |publisher=Capc.co.uk|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090530054012/http://www.capc.co.uk/PC%20_Scrapbook_Main.htm|archive-date=30 May 2009|access-date=1 June 2009}} The popularity of the South Park cartoon program led to the creation of the term "South Park Republican" by Andrew Sullivan,{{cn|date=July 2023}} and later the book South Park Conservatives by Brian C. Anderson.{{cite news|last1=Rich|first1=Frank|title=Conservatives ♥ 'South Park'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/opinion/conservatives-south-park.html|work=The New York Times|date=May 1, 2005}} In its Season 19 (2015), South Park introduced the character PC Principal, who embodies the principle, to poke fun at the principle of political correctness.{{cite news|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/2273831/south-park-caitlyn-jenner-joke/|title='South Park' Perfectly Showed How To Do A Caitlyn Jenner Joke Right|last1=Bell|first1=Crystal|date=17 September 2015|newspaper=MTV|access-date=29 January 2016|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010120846/http://www.mtv.com/news/2273831/south-park-caitlyn-jenner-joke/|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=https://www.avclub.com/pc-principal-rides-the-line-between-hero-and-villain-on-1798185980|title=PC Principal rides the line between hero and villain on the season finale of South Park|last1=Caffrey|first1=Dan|work=The A.V. Club|date=10 December 2015|access-date=29 January 2016|archive-date=14 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814044254/http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/pc-principal-rides-line-between-hero-and-villain-s-229588|url-status=live}}

The Colbert Report's host Stephen Colbert often talked, satirically, about the "PC Police".{{cite news|last1=Steinberg|first1=Dan|date=27 March 2014|title=Colbert Report on Redskins' new foundation|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2014/03/27/colbert-report-on-redskins-new-foundation/|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=3 December 2015|archive-date=4 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804181605/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2014/03/27/colbert-report-on-redskins-new-foundation/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/2014/04/01/stephen_colbert_jokes_about_cancelcolbert_the_system_worked/|title=Stephen Colbert jokes about #CancelColbert: 'The system worked!'|last1=D'addario|first1=Daniel|website=Salon|date=1 April 2014|access-date=3 December 2015|archive-date=25 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225135818/https://www.salon.com/2014/04/01/stephen_colbert_jokes_about_cancelcolbert_the_system_worked/|url-status=live}}

{{See also|Politicization of science}}

Groups who oppose certain generally accepted scientific views about evolution, second-hand tobacco smoke, AIDS, global warming, race and other politically contentious scientific matters have used the term political correctness to describe what they view as unwarranted rejection of their perspective on these issues by a scientific community that they believe has been corrupted by liberal politics.{{Cite book |last=Bethell |first=Tom |title=The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science |publisher=Regnery Publishing |location=Washington, D.C. |year=2005 |isbn=978-0895260314 |url=https://archive.org/details/politicallyincor00beth_0 }}

{{Sister project links|wikt=no |c=yes |n=no |q=yes |s=no |b=no |v=no }}

{{Wiktionary|political correctness|patriotic correctness|politically incorrect|politically correct}}

{{Portal|Language|Politics}}

{{div col|colwidth=20em}}

• {{Annotated link |Agenda-setting theory}}
• {{Annotated link |Anti-bias curriculum}}
• {{Annotated link |Binnen-I |{{lang|de | Binnen-I |nocat=yes}}}}
• {{Annotated link |Campaign Against Political Correctness}}
• {{Annotated link |Cancel culture}}
• {{Annotated link |Christmas controversies}}
• {{Annotated link |Common sense}}
• {{Annotated link |Conventional wisdom}}
• {{Annotated link |Cultural Bolshevism}}
• {{Annotated link |Cultural Marxism}}
• {{Annotated link |Distancing language}}
• {{Annotated link |Framing (social sciences)}}
• {{Annotated link |Groupthink}}
• {{Annotated link |Gutmensch |{{lang|de | Gutmensch |nocat=yes}}}}
• {{Annotated link |Hate speech}}
• {{Annotated link | Kotobagari |{{lang|ja | Kotobagari |nocat=yes}}}}
• {{Annotated link |Linguistic relativity}}
• {{Annotated link |Logocracy}}
• {{Annotated link |Microaggression}}
• {{Annotated link |Newspeak}}
• {{Annotated link |Pensée unique |{{lang|fr | Pensée unique |nocat=yes}}}}
• {{Annotated link |People-first language}}
• Politics and the English Language{{snd}} 1946 essay by George Orwell
• {{Annotated link |Red-baiting}}
• {{Annotated link |Reverse discrimination}}
• {{Annotated link |Self-censorship}}
• {{Annotated link |Snowflake (slang)}}
• {{Annotated link |Social justice warrior}}
• {{Annotated link |Speech code}}
• {{Annotated link |Sprachregelung |{{lang|de | Sprachregelung |nocat=yes}}}}
• Toe the line – Meaning either to conform to a rule or standard, or to stand in formation along a line
• {{Annotated link |Trigger warnings}}
• {{Annotated link |Truthiness}}
• {{Annotated link |Woke}}

{{div col end}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• Bernstein, David E. (2003). You Can't Say That! The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws. Cato Institute, 180 pages. {{ISBN|1930865538}}.
• Hentoff, Nat (1992). Free Speech for Me – But Not for Thee. HarperCollins. {{ISBN|006019006X}}.
• Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M. (1998). The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society. W.W. Norton, revised edition. {{ISBN|0393318540}}.
• Debra L. Schultz (1993). To Reclaim a Legacy of Diversity: Analyzing the "Political Correctness" Debates in Higher Education. New York: National Council for Research on Women. {{ISBN|978-1880547137}}.
• John Wilson (1995). The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on High Education. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8223-1713-5}}.

{{Discrimination}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Political Correctness}}

Category:Political pejoratives

Category:Political terminology

Category:Sociolinguistics