I'm A PC, And I'm Also A PC

When people complain about Political Correctness, they could mean one of two fairly distinct things:

1. They believe that pretty much anything is fair game in conversation, and resent any curbs on their behaviour
2. They don't have a problem with more moderate requests, but are alarmed at some of the more extreme complaints

I'm liberal, but not radically so. Thus, I'm sympathetic to the second complaint. But I don't have much patience for the first.

(When I typed the first sentence of that paragraph, my phone interpreted it as, "I'm liberal, but not tragically so.)

Here's the problem. The term "Politically Correct" has declined in popular usage since its heyday about twenty years ago. These days, it mostly only gets used by people in that first group.

It's been over a decade since I've heard the term "politically correct," except as a strawman to rationalize mean-spirited behavior.

— Michael Okuda (@MikeOkuda) March 31, 2015

But several times I've seen people complain about "Political Correctness ruining X," meaning that second sense. They then find that moderate liberals who would be sympathetic to the complaint, instead dismiss them as far-right crackpots.

As with so many problems, stir in the Internet and things get worse. A lot of the people who are quick to take offence use the Internet to express their anger. That gives it a power it never had before. At the peak of Political Correctness, you heard horror stories of people taking great offence over minor things, but for the most part those with extreme views don’t have access to the power to do real damage. But the Internet has given us all a soapbox, and now anyone who takes offence for any reason can attack. Thus, people in that second group often grumble not only about Political Correctness, but also about the Internet.

Again, that send entirely the wrong message to people like me. That first group of people also relies heavily on the Internet to meet and organize, and to disagree rather aggressively with people have more reasonable requests for polite behaviour. So if you go around saying that you’re sick of Politically Correct people on the Internet, we are just going to take that as further proof that you’re one of the first group.

So please, reasonable people with reasonable complaints, find some way to rephrase your problems so you stand out from the crowd.