This comes under the heading of something you have to see to believe.
I Knew the quote, “Political Correctness is a doctrine, recently fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end!” was from President Truman. But I did not know it came from a telegraphic conversation with General MacArthur & Admiral Nimitz.
God knows there are so many things, I like & admire about President Truman.
I’d really have to see the telegrams myself to believe this is true. Mainstream Media and Political Correctness don’t sound like terms that would be used in 1945.
I had always believed the term ‘political correctness’ came from the Soviet term ‘Party Line’, where Disagreements with the party line were treated as a political crime: anti-Soviet agitation.
Political correctness is the use of language to transform and dominate society.
People fear being ostracized for being politically incorrect more than they value their freedom of speech.
PC in late 18th century United States, a toast made to “the United States” might have had more positive if made to “the freedom/ the people of the United States!” or similar.
The World War 2 example demonstrates “politically correct” in a similar context, i.e. meaning “diplomatically prudent” or “discretion is the better part of valor”.
The opposite of PC in that sense is “faux pas” or “diplomatic gaffe”.
At its most basic, “political correctness” is an oppressive form of “etiquette”. In fact it has pretty much replaced the word “etiquette” - you hardly ever see that used much any more.
Etiquette was basically a set of unwritten rules for social engagement and acceptable language developed over time that aided in a more harmonious coexistence. They were not enforced by laws but by peer pressure. If you constantly broke those rules you would be shunned by polite society.
PC also defines what is permissible in polite society, but the rules are not set by the broad society over time, instead they are defined by “activists” and their propaganda organs (the media) and more often than not are made into laws that carry some type of legal punishment.
The idea that the term “mainstream media” would have been used in 1945 is preposterous, laughable.
This is the equivalent of the fake letter from George Bush’s commander Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, in which the font was obviously not available on typewriters of the time it was purportedly generated, and matched perfectly a letter produced by Microsoft Word.
Equally silly.
That first taste of PC introduced seeds of general anti-Americanism. It was still considered an oddity while Clinton was in office; was temporarily vanquished during the early part of the 9/11 era; during the Obama regime, all kinds of wokeness abounded. Today, all Western institutions are strongly questioned, if not ridiculed.
Way before that. The writings of Gramsci advocating “cultural hegemony” go back to the 1920s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Gramsci
I have been unable to find it, but I recall a column by the great Thomas Sowell over 35 years that foretold the coming PC crap...
the title was VISIGOTHS IN TWEED
By making all cultures equal by definition, offensive or derogatory words against any one culture by those of another were deemed to be "politically incorrect" speech, and those who uttered those words were call racists, bigots, xenophobes, and homophobes and intolerant.
That's where it began and that's where the cancel slurs started to be used by the left to shut down the right.
-PJ