Republicans use Political Correctness Too

Political correctness just seems to get worse and worse. That being said, as I noted in this old article for SwiftEconomics.com, conservatives and Republicans use political correctness as well; just not as much and not as well (thankfully).

​In my series of “mommy he did it too” articles, I now turn to the dreaded political correctness. Political correctness apparently came to us from the Frankfurt School and critical theory which, as Herbert Mercuse posited, the oppressed should have the rights to free expression, but the oppressors should be bound by censorship. Or at least something to that effect. Thereby, Django can kill a bunch of white people but just imagine trying to make that movie the other way around. And if you say the word “macaca” you can lose your Senate race. You can have different prices for different people if your bake sale is protesting the mythical wage gap, but not if you’reprotesting affirmative action. It can get so out of hand that a student employee reading Notre Dame vs the Klan (where the Klan is portrayed as the bad guy) can be found guilty of racial harassment. Or if you say there is a possibility that the reason there are more men than women in the top levels of science is maybe because while women and men have the same average IQ, men possibly have a higher variance putting more men at the bottom and the top, then well, you get fired from being the Dean of Harvard. On the other hand, if you say that men can benefit from being falsely accused of rape, like Catherine Commins of Vassar College, well oh well, ho hum.

And thus conservatives complain ad infinitum, often with good cause.

But wait,  wasn’t Helen Thomas forced to resign for saying negative things about the Republicans favorite ally, Israel?

Ward Churhill may have been a plagarist, but even before that came to light, conservatives were calling for his job solely for his anti-American rhetoric.

Indeed, much of John McCain’s 2008 Presidential campaign centered around anti-American comments made by Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

Or how about how some anti-war people were treated, especially by the likes of Fox News, prior to the Iraq War. It wasn’t so easy to be anti-war then like it is now. Here’s one example with Janeane Garofalo, who I should note, I’m not much a fan of.

It may be easier to make fun of Christianity these days then say Islam, but then again, the only open atheist in Congress lost his bid for re-election. Just try running for office as an atheist or even an agnostic and then let me know how that goes. Some Jews and Mormons have been elected. But how about running as a Muslim. Best of luck to you.

While being in favor or women’s issues or talking about a mostly imaginary “war on women” can get some votes, being a radical feminist, or even labeling yourself a feminist isn’t particularly popular these days in anything other than the coffee shop, urban yuppie, oh-sure-I’m-a-feminist-because-I-believe-in-equality-although-I’ve-never-really-thought-about-it sort of way. Same goes for race. Being against racism is good, being in favor of liberation theology or black nationalism or anything like that, is bad. And while our government grows and grows, openly supporting socialism is certainly a no-no.

And some of this backlash isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Bad ideas and merely unpopular ideas are more likely to get shot down. But while the left may jump on anyone for making an even slightly racist (against non-whites), sexist (against women), homophobic, or anti-religion (other than Christianity) comment, the right is little better. Make an anti-American, anti-Christian or pro-socialist comment and see how well you fare. You may be able to get by like Barack Obama did after Reverend Wright’s speeches came out. Or you may go the way of Helen Thomas. And I should note, even anti-white comments can get you fired from time to time. Think of what happened to poor Shirley Sherrod.

Indeed, some on the right (or on the left, but victims of liberal political correctness none the less) endure. Patrick Buchanan may have gotten fired from MSNBC for his book, but while Charles Murray got blasted over and over again when he released the highly controversial Bell Curve with Dick Hernstein, the book was a bestseller. Sometimes the outrage from political correctness run amok works in the ‘any press is good press’ sort of way. And it obviously didn’t destroy Murray’s career or make him untouchable. After all, he just recently had another best seller.

Still, just because political correctness can backfire on those who wield it, does not make it a good thing. And while some may say that political correctness is just politeness, it is of course, not. After all, it isn’t particularly polite to boycott, slander and fire people for having an opinion you dislike. No, political correctness is an attempt to control speech and thereby thought. Indeed, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t speak out against hateful speech or even mere bad ideas. But the firings, intimidation, threats, boycotts and slandering often go too far. Often way too far. Remember, political correctness adheres to no particular ideology. In Nazi Germany, antisemitism was politically correct. In the Soviet Union, expropriating people’s homes and property was politically correct. Under the Khmer Rouge killing off intellectuals and merchants was politically correct. Political correctness is a means to shut up the opposition to whatever policy those enforcing said political correctness want. The policy could be good (although it usually isn’t), but the method used to enforce it, i.e. political correctness, is not. And the means don’t justify the ends.

Just don’t think that liberals have a monopoly on this particular means.