PC as i understood it was originally a self-identifying term for ppl on the left b4 the right got a hold of it.
― Mordy, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 00:14 (nine years ago) link
if so, yikes that is crazy. terrible, terrible framing there.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 00:16 (nine years ago) link
maybe not sincerely tho?
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!'[11]
[11] http://www.ram-wan.net/restrepo/hall/some%20politically%20incorrect%20pathways.pdf
― Mordy, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 00:17 (nine years ago) link
that makes more sense - it certainly sounds like a parody of marxist party line type stuff
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 00:19 (nine years ago) link
A lot of the time I feel like 'politically correct' is a term people throw out to dismiss something they don't want to admit is actually correct
― franny glasshole (franny glass), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 04:13 (nine years ago) link
If so, that usage was already long-gone 25 years ago.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 04:52 (nine years ago) link
lol yeah, no-one, before the right got hold of the term, ever used 'politically correct' in a sincere, approving sense. This is why all in-group humour should be forbidden.
― sanctimonious uncontextualized linkdumps as an enlightmenment (Bananaman Begins), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 12:06 (nine years ago) link
It's entirely possible that as a pre-teen Utne Reader, I failed to grasp the sense of humor and context in whatever article it is that I'm remembering.
― how's life, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 12:56 (nine years ago) link
Looking through Nexis right now at differing contexts and connotations of early mentions.
The Washington PostApril 11, 1979, Wednesday, Final EditionAccording to diplomats here, the real threat comes not from the Kurds or Shiites as such, but from the fact that tens of thousands of both groups have migrated to the cities where they form a kind of urban proletariat, vulnerable to communist agitation for social and economic, not religious or ethnic, reasons.That is why the Baathists stress party orthodoxy as the overriding concern."In this country," a government official said, "your own personal religion is up to you but the religion of the party is obligatory."Ticking off the names of Kurds, Christians and Shiites who have risen to prominence, he noted, "Arab or Kurd, Sunni or [Shiite] it doesn't matter, as long as you are politically correct."
April 11, 1979, Wednesday, Final Edition
According to diplomats here, the real threat comes not from the Kurds or Shiites as such, but from the fact that tens of thousands of both groups have migrated to the cities where they form a kind of urban proletariat, vulnerable to communist agitation for social and economic, not religious or ethnic, reasons.
That is why the Baathists stress party orthodoxy as the overriding concern.
"In this country," a government official said, "your own personal religion is up to you but the religion of the party is obligatory."
Ticking off the names of Kurds, Christians and Shiites who have risen to prominence, he noted, "Arab or Kurd, Sunni or [Shiite] it doesn't matter, as long as you are politically correct."
The Washington PostOctober 8, 1982, Friday, Final EditionIt won't put Horchow or L.L. Bean out of business, but a new mail-order catalogue might be just the thing for recession-proof Republicans looking for politically correct Christmas gifts.It's "The Official Republican Collection," a 16-page potpourri of GOP kitsch, from the White House wooden Easter Eggs ($7) to the Oval Office cuff links ($25), from the Boehm porcelain Nancy Reagan Camellia ($650) to the ultimate stocking stuffer: a set of 10 portfolios containing the signatures of every president from George Washington to Ronald Reagan for a mere $20,000.Just the thing for that NCPAC knickknack shelf.
The Washington Post
October 8, 1982, Friday, Final Edition
It won't put Horchow or L.L. Bean out of business, but a new mail-order catalogue might be just the thing for recession-proof Republicans looking for politically correct Christmas gifts.
It's "The Official Republican Collection," a 16-page potpourri of GOP kitsch, from the White House wooden Easter Eggs ($7) to the Oval Office cuff links ($25), from the Boehm porcelain Nancy Reagan Camellia ($650) to the ultimate stocking stuffer: a set of 10 portfolios containing the signatures of every president from George Washington to Ronald Reagan for a mere $20,000.
Just the thing for that NCPAC knickknack shelf.
The Globe and Mail (Canada)February 5, 1985 TuesdayGirls just want to have fun, and how. That was the overriding theme ofa collection that seems to have been designed with the town flirt in mind.After the cheerlessness of politically correct female attire (you know,like a man), Ungaro appeared to be arguing that real freedom rests inoptions, including the option to parade in polka-dot pumps that matchshort, body-conscious polka-dot frocks.
February 5, 1985 Tuesday
Girls just want to have fun, and how. That was the overriding theme ofa collection that seems to have been designed with the town flirt in mind.After the cheerlessness of politically correct female attire (you know,like a man), Ungaro appeared to be arguing that real freedom rests inoptions, including the option to parade in polka-dot pumps that matchshort, body-conscious polka-dot frocks.
Los Angeles TimesNovember 20, 1985, Wednesday, Home EditionBIG BROTHER ON CAMPUSThe trouble with both Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia is that they are based on the assumption that there is one, and only one, politically correct way to think. Accuracy in Academia says that there are 10,000 Marxists teaching on American college campuses and that students should be protected from their mistaken views. How the organization arrived at that number is unclear, but it is clear that college students are capable of critical thought. Education is not indoctrination.
November 20, 1985, Wednesday, Home Edition
BIG BROTHER ON CAMPUS
The trouble with both Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia is that they are based on the assumption that there is one, and only one, politically correct way to think. Accuracy in Academia says that there are 10,000 Marxists teaching on American college campuses and that students should be protected from their mistaken views. How the organization arrived at that number is unclear, but it is clear that college students are capable of critical thought. Education is not indoctrination.
― how's life, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 13:08 (nine years ago) link
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/reaction-to-note-political-correctness-gone-mad-lowry-1.2080477
― 29 facepalms, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 14:45 (nine years ago) link
Per Nexis, this is the earliest use of the thread title
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/05/us/suit-depicts-fight-on-mit-faculty.html
Christina Hoff Sommers, a professor of philosophy at Clark University in Worcester and a friend of Professor Wolff, said the battle within M.I.T.'s literature department "is a case of political correctness gone mad." Professor Sommers said Professor Wolff considered herself a "progressive feminist" but one who still believed in applying traditional scholarly standards in her academic work.A number of the 10 professors in the department are "radical feminists, gay theorists or Marxists, very dogmatic and intolerant," Professor Sommers said. "Anyone who dares to oppose them gets labeled as part of the white, hetero, patriarchal hegemony." Broadening One's Education
A number of the 10 professors in the department are "radical feminists, gay theorists or Marxists, very dogmatic and intolerant," Professor Sommers said. "Anyone who dares to oppose them gets labeled as part of the white, hetero, patriarchal hegemony." Broadening One's Education
― how's life, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 15:02 (nine years ago) link
excellent work, hows life, I was politically active during this time frame but did not have a clear memory of all the history. My hazy recollection that it began as an in-joke, then the right got ahold of it.
― WRINKLEPAWSOME (sleeve), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 15:40 (nine years ago) link
Stuff like this being the default register for newspaper writing, of course, is why we have "political correctness" in the first place. But of course lots of people are nostalgic for the days when everyone understood that a woman must be "cheerless" and in fact barely a woman at all if her dress didn't cling to her body and show her knees.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 15:49 (nine years ago) link
Christina Hoff Sommers, a professor of philosophy at Clark University in Worcester and a friend of Professor Wolff, said the battle within M.I.T.'s literature department "is a case of political correctness gone mad."
I thought this name rang a bell and OH MY GOD this is Based Mom. This is the crazy anti-feminist lady providing cover for all the gamergate fuckheads online.
http://wehuntedthemammoth.com/2014/11/29/the-five-creepiest-gamergate-fan-art-tributes-to-christina-hoff-sommers-aka-based-mom-with-bonus-annoying-gif/
― Delbert Gravy (kingfish), Thursday, 5 February 2015 22:13 (nine years ago) link
http://www.aei.org/author/christina-hoff-sommers/
And what a slate she has published.
― Delbert Gravy (kingfish), Thursday, 5 February 2015 22:15 (nine years ago) link
haha! good catch!
― how's life, Thursday, 5 February 2015 23:15 (nine years ago) link
oh my god.
? yeah she's v much a known quantity in the intra- and anti-feminist battles of the 90s. it was not a surprise at all to see her weasel her way into the antifeminist shitshow dujour, that's p much her job
not to pull old-time rank you or anything
― goole, Thursday, 5 February 2015 23:19 (nine years ago) link
trashing "Free to Be You and Me"! this aggression shall not stand
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 5 February 2015 23:24 (nine years ago) link
What literature department ought not have gay theorists and Marxists? If you want to be a conservative warrior, go major in business. Please, these people make their living from having an enemy! Without Marxists and feminists, they wouldn't get published.
― SCOTTISH PEOPLE ONLY (I M Losted), Friday, 6 February 2015 00:09 (nine years ago) link
I read that "gay theorists and Marxists" and thought, "gee, sounds like fun"...too many liberal arts classes have profs who begin classes by saying, "...and I'm not a Marxist!"
― SCOTTISH PEOPLE ONLY (I M Losted), Friday, 6 February 2015 00:12 (nine years ago) link
Oh I figured she'd been around forever, it's just that her appearance is some sorta antimatter intersectionality of online retrograde fuckheaded horribleness.
― Delbert Gravy (kingfish), Friday, 6 February 2015 20:04 (nine years ago) link
lol yeah, no-one, before the right got hold of the term, ever used 'politically correct' in a sincere, approving sense. This is why all in-group humour should be forbidden.― sanctimonious uncontextualized linkdumps as an enlightmenment (Bananaman Begins), Wednesday, January 28, 2015 6:06 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― sanctimonious uncontextualized linkdumps as an enlightmenment (Bananaman Begins), Wednesday, January 28, 2015 6:06 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
spoken like a true stalinist!
FWIW i think the term "left-correct" was around within the left at least as long as "politically correct." again, it has an ironic charge, as in, "well, this idea may not be 'left-correct' (hewing the party line) but it's a good idea."
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 6 February 2015 21:20 (nine years ago) link
ok I did a search in the NYT from 1851.
1st mention of the term "politically correct" is from 1956, specifically from "Text of Speech on Stalin by Khrushchev as Released by the State Department." basically it's a key document of de-Stalinization from the USSR, with Kruschchev critiquing the "cult of personality" that had developed around Stalin. a fascinating read, actually.
but this lends credence to the idea that the term, in its American sense, was a reference to, and likely a parodying of, habits of the Old Left.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 6 February 2015 21:26 (nine years ago) link
btw until 1990 the other uses of the term are all from the Cold War/Eastern Bloc context.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 6 February 2015 21:27 (nine years ago) link
if the university social justice club ever gets stalin-like power i reserve the right to get worried
― Mordy, Friday, 6 February 2015 21:30 (nine years ago) link
correction
that was the 1st mention of the phrase "political correctness"
the phrase 'politically correct" appears in a few stray places starting in the 1860s, but it's fairly random. it starts appearing more frequently in the mid-1950s, again, in the context of discussions of Russia and the Eastern Bloc countries.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 6 February 2015 21:30 (nine years ago) link
what's the 1860 context?
― Mordy, Friday, 6 February 2015 21:31 (nine years ago) link
stalin.gif
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 February 2015 21:31 (nine years ago) link
use of both terms EXPLODES in the 1990s btw, where it is suddenly being applied much more frequently to the American context..
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 6 February 2015 21:31 (nine years ago) link
"i need stalinism bc it triggers me when the kulaks get to keep their grain seed."
― Mordy, Friday, 6 February 2015 21:32 (nine years ago) link
what's the 1860 context?― Mordy, Friday, February 6, 2015 3:31 PM (36 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Mordy, Friday, February 6, 2015 3:31 PM (36 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
actually, it's 1875.
headline: "FROM THE PACIFIC COAST.: SAN FRANCISCO INTERESTS, A SPECIALLY FAVORABLE SEASON--THE FEELING AGAINST CAPT. WADDELL AND THE PACIFIC MAIL DIRECTORY--STEINBERGER'S POPULARITY AMONG HIS HEATHEN SUBJECTS."
don't have time ATM to read entire article sorry, but here's the terrific opening lines:
After five weeks' rain, with scarcely one clear day, we have once more our glorious Winter weather, bright, sunny, clear, and an atmosphere just bracing enough to require a thin Fall overcoat, and that not needed if you are walking. Already the hill-sides are clothed in emerald hues, and the grateful bovine nippeth the tender grass and the festive dairyman sees signs of a fall in butter.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 6 February 2015 21:33 (nine years ago) link
you make a lot of trigger jokes mordy what's up with that
― Οὖτις, Friday, 6 February 2015 21:34 (nine years ago) link
the grateful bovine nippeth the tender grass and the festive dairyman sees signs of a fall in butter
journalism standards really have declined, I gotta say
― Οὖτις, Friday, 6 February 2015 21:35 (nine years ago) link
xxp amateurist what's the line w/ the "pc" quote?
― Mordy, Friday, 6 February 2015 21:38 (nine years ago) link
don't worry about it shakes
― Mordy, Friday, 6 February 2015 21:40 (nine years ago) link
mordy, i'd have to read through the whole thing to find out! it's not text-searchable.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 6 February 2015 21:43 (nine years ago) link
― Οὖτις, Friday, February 6, 2015 4:35 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
otm. I can't imagine any current reporting being mistaken for Jethro Tull lyrics.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 6 February 2015 21:44 (nine years ago) link
apparently i have access; i found it:
http://i57.tinypic.com/15pmvpe.png
also this gem:
http://i60.tinypic.com/2eg8kls.png
― Mordy, Friday, 6 February 2015 21:47 (nine years ago) link
emoluments, he don't got any any
― Οὖτις, Friday, 6 February 2015 21:52 (nine years ago) link
"He continued to destroy ships long after he was aware that the war was over. 'Like a boss,' our correspondent added."
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 6 February 2015 22:08 (nine years ago) link
lol
― Οὖτις, Friday, 6 February 2015 22:09 (nine years ago) link
"Once again, it's the tail wagging the dog."
― oi listen mate, shut up (dog latin), Friday, 13 February 2015 16:20 (nine years ago) link
Waddell was obv a bad loser.
― Aimless, Friday, 13 February 2015 18:55 (nine years ago) link
So the idea is that if someone is derisively called "politically correct" presumably because they are unnecessarily touchy about things. This displays a lack of self-awareness because if you are upset about someone being PC then you are being unnecessarily touchy imo.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 13 February 2015 19:02 (nine years ago) link
like ta shoot someone out of a Western canon, right into a busy intersectionality
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 8 August 2017 03:06 (six years ago) link
lol Morbs ^
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 August 2021 17:32 (two years ago) link
revive because… oh nohttps://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/aug/24/cancel-me-john-cleese-to-present-channel-4-show-on-woke-thought
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 August 2021 17:33 (two years ago) link