Politically Correct a Dictionary Definition

Political Correctness has influenced our psychology over the years and has changed the outcomes of elections.  It is also difficult to define and recognize.  This is a dictionary definition and her origin story.

TLDR Takeaway Video (2:00-3:00 and last 45 seconds)

Saphire’s Political Dictionary Definition

Conforming to liberal or far-left thought on sexual, racial and environmental issues.

Politically Correct began in the 1970’s as an assertion of liberal or progressive activists.  The earliest known use of the term was in an essay by Toni Cade (later Toni Cade Bambara) in her 1970 anthology The Black Woman: “A man cannot be politically correct and a chauvinist too.”  It was later used in December 1975 statement by Karen DeCrow, then president of the National Organization for Women, who said that NOW was taking the “intellectually and politically correct direction.” 

The adjectival phrase, frequently abbreviated to p.c. by conservatives attacking regimentation in language and thought by “conformists” liberal academics, became a controversial expression on college campuses in the early 1980’s.  Senator Daniel P. Moynihan sent the author a note enclosing a cartoon drawn by his son, John, and published in the Wesleyan Argus in 1982 using politically correct.

In November 1933, the Christian Science Monitor reported, “The results of a recent investigation of the knowledge of 65,000 Soviet pupils are candidly summed up in the official newspaper, Izvestia, in the following terms: ‘Bad grammar, abundance of mistakes in spelling,...superficial and often politically incorrect information in civics and social sciences.’”  The OED reports that the phrase was used again in a 1939 New Republic magazine: “It isn’t just because of rapidly shifting times and attitudes- going back to ‘Lives of a Bengal Lancer’ almost five years afterward, you will find it just as politically incorrect and marvelous as ever.” 

In A Century of New Words, John Ayto tracked the phrase back to 1793, when John Wilson heard someone give a toast to “the United States.” He said, “The people of the United States’ is the toast given.  This is not politically correct.” 

The popularization of the Communist phrase came with Maoist “correct thinking.” Chairman Mao Zedong titled a 1963 thought “Where Do Correct Ideas Come From?” He answered his own question: “They come from social practice, and from it alone.”  Correct thinking, “the disciplined acceptance of a party line,”  led to the definition of the adjective correct as “reflecting the views of the group.”  The noun equivalent of this phrase is political correctness (also abbreviated to p.c.). And one who is not politically correct (from a p.c. standpoint) is dubbed politically incorrect. 

The phrase soon became jokingly used in other combinations, and environmental correctness, morally correct, patriotically correct, and even nutritionally correct and sartorially incorrect found there way into print. 

Attempts to police language, with terms such as feminine and codger labeled “objectionable,” led to parody: at the 1992 Democratic National Convention in New York, a handout for The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook recommended replacing ballot-box stuffing with “nontraditional voting,” cliche with “previously enjoyed sound bite,” and sore loser with “equanimity deprived individual with temporarily unmet career objectives.”  However, some discriminatory words deserved correction: fireman was replaced with firefighter, policeman and lawman with police officer, and mailman with postal worker. Mankind, always intended to encompass women, is now better expressed as humanity. 

To a different order of magnitude political incorrectness: in 2007, when a popular radio star, Don Imus, used the slur “nappy-headed hos” (whores with the kind of frizzy hardos chosen by some African-American women) regarding a champion woman’s basketball team, reaction was intense and advertisers caused the broadcaster and his producer to be fired.  Columnist Daniel Henninger of the The Wall Street Journal briefly reviewed the history of such reactions: “Don Imus… The Duke lacrosse team, Jimmy the Greek, the kid who yelled ‘water buffalo’ at Penn, Howard Cosell, Jon Stewart, Chief Illiniwek, Jackie Mason and ‘South Park’ all have in common one thing: They have not been Politically Correct.”  He added “The annihilation of Harvard President Larry Summers” for suggesting the possibility that women are underrepresented in science and engineering because more men than women “are four standard deviations above the mean.”  The p.c. reaction to Imus slur, however, had and effect on the use of slurs by hip-hop artists, and move to discourage the proliferation of “n, b, and h, words” on the air.  Imus, chastened, found another job. 

Safire’s Political Dictionary pp 555-556 2008

Is Wokeness mentally ill?

Yes. 

Some things from the politically correct world that has been going on since 2008 are insane and has prevented the proper normal function of government.  Here are some.

1. Gender Neutral Language for everything.  Changing Fireman to Firefighter is politically correct enough.  

1. Imposing an insulting word like LatinX on the multiple cultures in Central and South America and Spain and attempting to impose a radical social science theory about language and sex/gender  on America’s oldest ally of France by getting them to change the French language is something entirely different.  

2. Hypothetically If the County and City of San Francisco were to introduce a resolution to change the name of their city to "San Franciscx" regular sane ordinary people would begin having "are you feeling okay? do you need professional psychiatric help? Are you in crisis?" type conversations with the County Supervisors.  

3. This genderless language standard comes from college professors but college professors have not applied this standard to themselves. for example: master bedrooms are now "owner's suites" but master degrees remain master degrees.  job descriptions remove gender specific language but still may require a b.a. which stands for Bachelor of Arts. and despite the high levels of "political correctness" and feminism that exist on college campuses I have yet to read about a college issuing a "Bachelorette of Arts" degree. the definition of bachelor remains an unmarried man and the definition of patriarchy remains fatherhood.

4. Section 1 is mentally ill and should have its head examined. 

5. this blog post will not fix the daddy issues that exist in the faculty lounges of college campuses but I think it's a good start to notice some of them and begin addressing it as a worldwide problem.

History has all the answers and influence the narratives learned in college.  For Example the professorial conversations that happen at the American institution of Harvard are probably not in line with the narrative of the origin story of Harvard as an institution. 

TLDR: John Harvard was born in Shakespeare's hometown of Stafford upon Avon in England.  His family died from the bubonic plague and he inherited some land and money and attended Cambridge University and married an Englishwoman.  they came to Massachusetts and John Harvard became a preacher and they built a home on Main Street in Cambridge Massachusetts.  When he died he gifted the newly planned puritan religious college his collection of 300 books and 740 pounds an equivalent of over $100,000 in today's money.  This gift resulted in the college to be named after him. 

The practice of having colleges named after people who write big checks continues today. 

Yale University is named after a businessman who donated the profits of selling 9 bales of goods, 400 books, and a portrait of King George to a local puritan college.

1. The idea that multiculturalism is racist and that cultural appropriation is something to avoid.  

1. Mariachi musicians in Mexico play the accordion and sing in Spanish.. The accordion was invented in Vienna in the 1820’s.  The Spanish Language was invented in the Mediterranean and was appropriated by the natives of Mexico 600 years ago. 

2. The potato used in Ireland and British Fish and Chips is something that is unique to them. Or the tomato is unique to Italian food and should be kept in Italy.

1. The history of the potato comes from Peru and Columbus brought the Tomato back from the New World to Europe.  They Culturally appropriated that food and adopted it as their own. 

3. All of this is completely normal and is known history. 

2. Nobody is forgiven any more and cancel culture is nothing but gossip and anger. 

1. Cancel Culture needs to learn the power of forgiveness as a way to heal the sinful and disastrous impacts of gossip. 

2. There is too much gossip and anger and not enough compassion and forgiveness to those who slip up. 

3. Sticks and stones may break bones but words should not hurt so damn much. 

3. Feelings and predicting the future.

1. Feelings can be mentally ill.

2. Politically correct feelings can be very mentally ill.

3. Psychic politically correct feelings are probably mentally ill in some way.

4. Nobody knows what the future will bring. 

4. The beliefs about how bad things are remain despite the massive progress that has been made on some issues. 
1. Back in Elementary School in the Bay Area of California I designed a small 1 foot square that was sewn together to form a massive quilt that covered the entire National Mall to help raise awareness for Aids. I remember the assembly in the cafeteria where a member of the lgb community talked about all the friends he lost to aids and how moved he was by our school helping make this quilt.  It was real sad. That was almost 30 years ago back when the LGB community faced real life vs death problems on top of workplace discrimination and the lack of a right to marriage.
2. 2020 is not 1990.  Now LGBTQIA+ community can legally marry whoever they want.  The Supreme Court has upheld anti discrimination laws to transgender people and the opinion was written by an appointee of Trump who once claimed that all Mexicans were racist. (trump said that not Neil Gorsuch) 
3. That's progress and are big wins. However p.c. people continue to talk about "the fight for equality" as if nothing has changed since Hollywood made Philadelphia. 
4. the fight over pronoun preferences is not the same as how the government treated aids patients in the 1980's. 
    

Political Correctness can Work on These