@georgeob1,
Quote:I believe what I wrote about the various group identities and values at the heart of a sizeable fraction of "politically correct" thought and speech is indeed accurate, as is the critique I provided of it. Do you agree?
Not much of it, no. You've bought into the rightwing memes/cliches - the fundamental one being that this is a feature overwhelmingly of the left - and so you don't take the time or effort to think much past that. So you write sentences of this sort:
Quote:I do understand its contemporary usage by both progressive believers and conservative skeptics.
You say it is a function of "herd mentality" or that it arises from people thinking in terms of groups we belong to or sympathize with rather than the individual, thus that the condemnation of particular speech acts (perhaps like "faggot") are merely instances of un-reflective herd-think. Or perhaps you see it in the condemnation of Limbaugh's use of "slut" or his frequent references to Michelle as having a big ass (like other black women). Though you didn't explicitly say it in the posts on this, I'll wager you also hold that such "sensitivity" is built on a concept (probably false) of "victimization" of groups of people.
Do you know Bill Donohue of the Catholic League? His project is the protection of the Catholic church from negative criticisms. The church, catholics, and christians broadly are being regularly victimized, he says. He's joined by people like O'Reilly (all of Fox, actually) in the yearly complaints about a "war on christmas". Likewise we can look at the offense taken by orthodox Jews and Muslims and Christians by secularism which, they hold, victimizes them all, as group entities.
Or take the condemnations of negative statements on groups of Americans coming from, say, a Canadian. You may have bumped into this one and perhaps taken offense. Perhaps now and again, you or others find offense in things that might be said about conservatives. Or about military members. Or about corporate entities. Or caucasians. Or western culture. Or those who live in "fly over America".
We are social creatures, not merely individuals. We form in groups. We align ourselves within groups. All of us, all of the time.
