STEVEN FRIEDMAN: Those against ‘political correctness’ seek right to express prejudice freely
What ‘political correctness’ detractors want to end is the voice of people who feel a need to treat with respect those who have been denied it
If you want to know who, in any debate, cares about others, look for those who are labelled ‘politically correct’. Predictably, as the debate on Helen Zille’s colonialism tweet became more heated, that tired term, ‘politically correct’, was repeatedly thrown into the pot. Not only have Zille’s defenders used it — some of her detractors were quick to assure readers that they had not fallen prey to ‘political correctness’. Equally predictably, no-one on either side of the debate was willing to use the term to describe themselves. This is predictable because it confirms that a form of abuse designed to silence anyone who shows sympathy for people who have been on the wrong end of power, has become so accepted that even the people at whom it is aimed no longer think to question it. This is a pity because the term says far more about the prejudices of those who use it than the attitudes of those at whom it is aimed.‘Politically correct’ has become so widely accepted because it conjures u...
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