Posted by Peter H on April 26, 2005 at 14:49:04 from 81.158.215.16 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Buchan a bigot ? posted by Charles Coull on April 26, 2005 at 11:46:07:
I feel obliged to return to the fray to protest about the misuse of the term 'politically correct'. It has nothing to do with the attitudes described by Charles in the case of Buchan - these can be rightly labelled 'bigoted' or 'racist' or 'anti-semitic' etc etc. Political correctness refers to a modern and far more artificial concept - the alteration of language and educational syllabuses etc to reflect arbitrary codes or attitudes on which people may genuinely differ. The 'political' aims are genuine enough, but they are brought about in an over-zealous and irritatingly counter-productive manner. To protest about political correctness is merely to ask that we return to free use of language within the law and not drift into the type of word manipulation Orwell warned against.