Not a Very P.C. Thing to Say -- NYMag

Not a Very P.C. Thing to Say -- Jonathan Chait -- NYMag

"The p.c. style of politics has one serious, possibly fatal drawback: It is exhausting. Claims of victimhood that are useful within the left-wing subculture may alienate much of America. The movement's dour puritanism can move people to outrage, but it may prove ill suited to the hopeful mood required of mass politics. Nor does it bode well for the movement's longevity that many of its allies are worn out. 'It seems to me now that the public face of social liberalism has ceased to seem positive, joyful, human, and freeing,' confessed the progressive writer Freddie deBoer. 'There are so many ways to step on a land mine now, so many terms that have become forbidden, so many attitudes that will get you cast out if you even appear to hold them. I'm far from alone in feeling that it's typically not worth it to engage, given the risks.' Goldberg wrote recently about people 'who feel emotionally savaged by their involvement in [online feminism] -- not because of sexist trolls, but because of the slashing righteousness of other feminists.' Former Feministing editor Samhita Mukhopadhyay told her, 'Everyone is so scared to speak right now.'

"That the new political correctness has bludgeoned even many of its own supporters into despondent silence is a triumph, but one of limited use. Politics in a democracy is still based on getting people to agree with you, not making them afraid to disagree."

REACTIONS:

Conservative blogger John Sexton writes that political correctness has its roots in the primitive instincts of altruistic punishment, referring to Douglas Preston's book, Trial by Fury: Internet Savagery and the Amanda Knox Case:

"Altruistic punishment, simply put, is the expression of negative emotions toward those who fail to cooperate with the group. It is a pressure tactic designed to whip people into line with the tribe and its goals.

"...Altruistic punishment may have developed as a way to discourage... freeloading. But with the advent of social media, it seems to apply to everything and everyone who fails to get in line with the group's priorities.

"The scary thing about altruistic punishment is that human beings seem wired to take pleasure in it. If you've ever wanted the simple answer to why there are so many unpleasant jerks online, it's because they get a genuine rush out of being unpleasant jerks online. They are convinced they are doing something important, even noble, by punishing the tribe's detractors...."

Leftist Fredrik DeBoer is bothered that well-meaning college students are driven away from the Left because they aren't perfectly politically correct yet:

"I have seen, with my own two eyes, a 20 year old black man, a track athlete who tried to fit organizing meetings around classes and his ridiculous practice schedule (for which he received a scholarship worth a quarter of tuition), be told not to return to those meetings because he said he thought there were such a thing as innate gender differences. He wasn't a homophobe, or transphobic, or a misogynist. It turns out that 20 year olds from rural South Carolina aren't born with an innate understanding of the intersectionality playbook. But those were the terms deployed against him, those and worse. So that was it; he was gone....

"I want a left that can win, and there's no way I can have that when the actually-existing left sheds potential allies at an impossible rate. But the prohibition against ever telling anyone to be friendlier and more forgiving is so powerful and calcified it's a permanent feature of today's progressivism."