March 15, 2003
Of the many stains left across the internet by the current crop of neoconservative idiotarians—rubber-stamp obviousness and desperate cries for group hugs and attention being close-to-hand examples—surely one of the greasiest is the constant grousing about the scourge of “political correctness”; a complaint that plays as reliably well in the echo chamber as a frontman demanding if the arena is ready to rock.If Allen were a right-winger, of course, they’d hail him as “Menckenesque.” [08:07 AM]
Ok, you've shamed me into changing my blog description: "no bullshit" should do the job as far as content goes anyway.
I've felt for years that political correctness was a much bigger deal on the right, especially the whacko part, than it ever was on the left, or the center. Thanks for finding words for me.
Back during the Clinton administration, somebody commented on right-wing accusations that the Clintons were 'waging the politics of personal destruction'.
They said that whenever the right accuses the left of doing something, it's because the right is already doing it, or plans on doing it as soon as possible.
Over the past few years, I've found that to be very true, and the single best explanation for why the right says what it says about the left.
Is it me, or are "freedom fries" the new political correctness? We on the left get something to joke about, just as conservatives used to joke about the "vertically-challenged." I've always thought turnabout was fair play.
Someone -- I think it was Joe Queenan -- described the current political situation (as long ago as the '80s) as one side gets the Pentagon, Boeing, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, etc, and the other side gets the English Department. In that vein, the whole political correctness furor was and is the winning side saying it wasn't satisfied with that deal and it wanted the English Department too.
The usual suspects in PC controversies are often annoying, but rarely dangerous. Who REALLY suffers from "politically incorrect" opinions? The Dixie Chicks were scrapped from country radio station playlists after expressing embarrassment that George Bush is from Texas. What pro-Bush entertainer has suffered any backlash at all? A woman on a nearby Division III college basketball team decided not to face the flag during the Star Spangled Banner because of the rush to war. She has been abused by fans, even physically confronted during games, while Mike Piazza and Al Lieter, rich and famous athletes, sneer at her and take the enormous political risk of publicly supporting the president of the United States. The list goes on, but I won't.
When I hear popular commentators yell "PC," as if they, not their targets, faced adverse condequences for their beliefs, I reach for a custard pie or a gun, whichever is handier.
Hard-Hitting Moderator: Teresa Nielsen Hayden.
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