The Spectator’s Superb Article on Political Correctness

Rich Terrell

Sarah Watching  Rarely will you find a better-written piece on political correctness than The Spectator’s Ed West article called “Is Political Correctness Speeding Up?”

"I would love to post it all here–but The Spectator is subscription-based, though you can read 3 articles for free.

"West says “…though [political correctnes] is an imperfect phrase, because it applies both to a code of politeness (much of which I agree with) and also a method of enforcing orthodoxy. Unfortunately, it is the former, especially the stupider and more mundane examples, which attracts most attention, when in reality it is the latter which has far more impact.”

“Enforcing orthodoxy,” Is that great phrasing or what? With its enduring religious connotations “orthodoxy” refers to one group’s beliefs—and don’t doubt that liberalism serves the purpose of religion for modern liberals. “Enforcing” captures the true purpose of political correctness which is to enforce silence of the opposition.

Silence The Opposition?
"By making someone believe that it is not polite to point out, for instance, that “most terrorists are Muslims” is silencing those who dare speak truth regarding this world atrocity. Barack Obama, who attempted to fundamentally change the United States–for the worst–is infamous for 1) refusing to call Islamic terror, Islamic terror, 2) lying to American citizens about an Islamic attack at Ft. Hood, instead referring to it as “workplace violence,” 3) from his bully platform, severely criticizing anyone who raised a red flag against unvetted Muslim refugees being allowed into the United States." . . .

We Face the Threat to Our Culture Right Now, Not in the Future. . . "Now, look, folks. I know this is… I want to be very clear here. I am not obsessed or possessed here of fatalism or negativism. I just read something that triggered me, when I read the line (paraphrased), “If this stuff ever becomes mainstream, then we’re gonna have problems.” I’ve been frustrated for so long that so many haven’t seen what’s coming, that haven’t seen what was in front of our faces and has been on the way to getting us to this point. It needn’t have happened, but it did, because nobody has ever stood up and told basically a bunch of kids to shut up and grow up, or to sit down and grow up.

"Instead, we’ve been bending over backwards with political correctness. We haven’t wanted to hurt anybody’s feelings and so forth. We’ve allowed these renegades to totally just destroy the public education system, not to mention much of higher education at the university level and so forth. We’re dangerously closer to this. But it’s interesting. We’ve got a guy. One of the guys waiting to speak on the phone thinks that I’m a little overwrought, that the Nike thing is actually one of the best things that could ever happen in terms of reelecting Trump. Now, we had somebody make this point yesterday in a different way." . . .