# Difference between "good political correctness" and "bad political correctness" **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 1, 2020, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-good-political-correctness-and-bad-political-correctness/854825 "2020-06-01T01:36:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-good-political-correctness-and-bad-political-correctness/854825/41 "2020-06-01T22:59:45Z")
> [@Chingon](#): > > Until the OP owns up to the multiple (intentionally) misleading claims they made in the first post, I don’t see how much of a conversation can take place. Yes, this. I would be happy to get all riled up at “Bad PC” if the OP posted an actual link, along with a summary of the harm it caused. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-good-political-correctness-and-bad-political-correctness/854825/42 "2020-06-01T23:13:29Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > But the reason the battle over PC is so intense is that when conservatives say they oppose PC, liberals think it means they oppose good PC, and when liberals support PC, conservatives think it means they support bad PC. The two sides are therefore talking past each other. In all of my life, I have never heard anyone say “I support PC.” Most people don’t think they are PC. Most people don’t want to be seen as PC. No one thinks their particular “diction policing” is “PC”, because “PC” has a negative connotation. Everyone tries to be delicate about how they describe certain things and certain people. They just don’t call this being PC. Like, I might call someone a “bible-thumper”. Another person might describe them as “religious” or “devout”. That person may describe a woman as “butch lesbo”. I might call them a “woman who is androgynous”. Both of us are being PC. We just choose to be PC over different things. When I hear someone bragging about not being PC, I assume they have the sensitivities just like everyone else. I assume they just have a problem with respecting _other_ people’s sensitivities. ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-good-political-correctness-and-bad-political-correctness/854825/43 "2020-06-01T23:28:15Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > **80 percent** of Americans say they oppose political correctness. That is an immense percentage. > > [Large Majorities Dislike Political Correctness - The Atlantic](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/572581/) > > Sure, one could argue that a significant chunk of that is Trump voters who want to be offensive for offenses sake, but you don’t get to 80 percent with just the Trump vote alone. Such a high percentage indicates that many centrist and liberal Americans oppose PC as well. Which in turn suggests that many think of PC in terms of Bad PC, not Good PC. I suspect there’s a bit of an “everyone who drivers faster than me is a maniac, everyone who drives slower than me is an idiot” issue with the poll. PC is almost defined as “too” PC, while people don’t define their own dislike of racism etc as PC. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-good-political-correctness-and-bad-political-correctness/854825/44 "2020-06-01T23:36:07Z")
> [@Chingon](#): > > Until the OP owns up to the multiple (intentionally) misleading claims they made in the first post, I don’t see how much of a conversation can take place. Hard to more clearer violate the rule against accusations of lying. Warning issued. Don’t do it again. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-good-political-correctness-and-bad-political-correctness/854825/45 "2020-06-02T00:00:52Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > In all of my life, I have never heard anyone say “I support PC.” Most people don’t think they are PC. Most people don’t want to be seen as PC. No one thinks their particular “diction policing” is “PC”, because “PC” has a negative connotation. Everyone tries to be delicate about how they describe certain things and certain people. They just don’t call this being PC. This. “Politically Correct” is inherently a negative value judgement on whatever you are describing. To call some speech/action politically correct is to say, “you don’t really believe in what you are saying/doing, and are only performing for societal approval, because you are a weak person who worries constantly about what other people think”. And conversely, people who brag about being non-PC are saying, “I’m a smart/tough/bold person who thinks for themselves without caring what other people think”. There is no “Good PC” for the same reason there is no “Good dipshittery” – the phase is inherently an insult. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-good-political-correctness-and-bad-political-correctness/854825/46 "2020-06-02T00:19:13Z")
I’m curious how big of a problem this even really is? The OP did a poor job of framing the question and the examples given seem tilted to one side (ten citations for “bad” and none for “good” and that is even without making an assessment of the quality of the ten citations given which some have already noted are dubious). Is this argument by anecdote? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-good-political-correctness-and-bad-political-correctness/854825/47 "2020-06-02T00:59:58Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > (ten citations for “bad” and none for “good” The nature of Bad PC is that it requires citations. The nature of Good PC (treating someone with decency) are of a nature that you wouldn’t need citations, nor could you find citations for them. Suppose someone decides \*\*\*not \*\*\*to say call someone the N-word, due to common decency and politeness - how would you cite a source for that? That would be like citing someone saying please or thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-good-political-correctness-and-bad-political-correctness/854825/48 "2020-06-02T01:03:37Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > In all of my life, I have never heard anyone say “I support PC.” Most people don’t think they are PC. Most people don’t want to be seen as PC. No one thinks their particular “diction policing” is “PC”, because “PC” has a negative connotation. Everyone tries to be delicate about how they describe certain things and certain people. They just don’t call this being PC. > > Like, I might call someone a “bible-thumper”. Another person might describe them as “religious” or “devout”. That person may describe a woman as “butch lesbo”. I might call them a “woman who is androgynous”. Both of us are being PC. We just choose to be PC over different things. > > When I hear someone bragging about not being PC, I assume they have the sensitivities just like everyone else. I assume they just have a problem with respecting _other_ people’s sensitivities. > [@leahcim](#): > > This. “Politically Correct” is inherently a negative value judgement on whatever you are describing. To call some speech/action politically correct is to say, “you don’t really believe in what you are saying/doing, and are only performing for societal approval, because you are a weak person who worries constantly about what other people think”. And conversely, people who brag about being non-PC are saying, “I’m a smart/tough/bold person who thinks for themselves without caring what other people think”. > > There is no “Good PC” for the same reason there is no “Good dipshittery” – the phase is inherently an insult. There are those who are trying to rehabilitate the term, though. [Political Correctness is an Absolute Must](https://time.com/4405217/trump-political-correctness-obama/) [Why I Choose to be Politically Correct](https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2019/01/duke-university-why-i-choose-to-be-politically-correct) [Why Political Correctness is a Good Thing](https://adigaskell.org/2019/10/25/why-political-correctness-is-a-good-thing/) [Maybe Political Correctness isn’t So Bad After All](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/10/maybe-political-correctness-isnt-so-bad-after-all/) [Here’s Why Political Correctness is Actually a Good Thing](https://metro.co.uk/2018/03/05/heres-why-political-correctness-is-actually-a-good-thing-7318575/) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-good-political-correctness-and-bad-political-correctness/854825/49 "2020-06-02T01:10:03Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > The nature of Bad PC is that it requires citations. The nature of Good PC (treating someone with decency) are of a nature that you wouldn’t need citations, nor could you find citations for them. Uh, nice try, but you do in fact need citations to support the inference _ **that that sort of basic decent behavior is meaningfully identified as any kind of “PC” in the first place** _. You won’t find citations for that inference, because it’s largely false. As **monstro** and **leahcim** and others have been patiently pointing out, “PC” is overwhelmingly seen as a derogatory term with negative connotations. Yes, lots of people are in favor of the behavioral standards that you call “good PC”, but that doesn’t mean that they call it by that name. Your OP is trying to argue that people in general are somehow failing to “recognize” the existence of “good PC”. A more straightforward explanation is that people in general simply don’t recognize your idiosyncratic attempts to impose your own definitions on the term “PC”. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-good-political-correctness-and-bad-political-correctness/854825/50 "2020-06-02T01:14:36Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > There are those who are trying to rehabilitate the term, though. But all of those are pushbacks against the offensive cruelty of self-described “anti-PC” ideologies. They’re not buying into your personal dichotomy between “good PC” and “bad PC”. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-good-political-correctness-and-bad-political-correctness/854825/51 "2020-06-02T09:25:03Z")
Something that right-wingers and **Mr. Velocity** ignore is that many of the most egregious abuses of “Political Correctness” portrayed by right-wing venues are absurd and tiny incidents (or just made up altogether) that get seized upon by right-wing pundits and deliberately blown out of proportion. Sean Hannity and the other liars give their viewers the impression that “liberals” are all up-in-arms supporting some idiot (or even a fictional character). As I showed by reviewing OP’s specific examples, even some Dopers are victimized into “swallowing the Kool-Aid.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-good-political-correctness-and-bad-political-correctness/854825.md?page=2)