Why It’s Time to Retire the Term "Political Correctness" | Big Think – Big Think

Adam Mansbach: You know even the term "political correctness" at this point I feel like has been compromised, has been diluted, and means different things to different people in a way that is counterproductive. I would vote to retire the term entirely. I guess where I fall is, on one hand if you are whining about the way that political correctness and some culture of respect prevents you from being an asshole, then youre an asshole. If the political correctness of the world stops you, impinges your freedom of speech and prevention from being misogynistic, homophobic, racistthen fuck you, basically. I guess thats ultimately where I fall on it.

I dont really know any artists, any creative folks who feel like some restrictive culture is preventing them from doing their art, you know. The people I see are flourishing in this space. I think respect is important. I think calling people by the words and the names and the pronouns that they choose for themselves is critical. Theres no reason in any sense to do otherwise that I can think of.

But I feel like the term itself, as far back as the 90s, was being bandied about in this spirit of mockery, and I remember books being published, like The Politically Correct Handbook and like things that just take it to a level of absurdity.

The simple ideathat people of various marginalized discriminated against groups were claiming ownership of the words used to describe themwas taken and satirized and made absurd by the right, a group of people who are not known for their sense of humor. And it became kind of a battering ram. Like Oh, you know, we cant say blah, blah, blah. And like Well you cant say short anymore, you have to say vertically challenged. And it was very deliberate.

I mean it was part of the war around language which is a very critical part of political discourse. The control of terminology is really, really important in the way that peoples views are shaped. And its something that the right has had a lock on surprisingly for a pretty long time, you know. Pro-life sounds good but isnt. But the way that the words and the phrases and the terminology shape the debate is really critical. So the term in my mind goes back to that and yeah, at this point I think we could probably put it to death and come up with something better.

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Why It's Time to Retire the Term "Political Correctness" | Big Think - Big Think