The striking manifestation of PC is academic terrorism. Leftist/communist professors are able to stifle free speech at universities-they cannot allow any criticism of their worldview.I was a victim of this-I got a low grade on a paper because I dared to comment favorably on Dr. Milton Friedman (Econ 101). Along with this is the pseudoscience peddled by such hacks as Ward Churchill (compared American patriots with Adolf Eichmann, and Leonard Jeffries (“Sun People” and “Ice People”). Both of these clowns were granted tenure!
I am possibly several furlongs to the political left of most of the people who complain about “PC police” and etc, but I don’t like this either.
a) I think it is crucially important if you claim to be liberationist-egalitarian in your politics to keep in mind that the inequality closest to home is the one between student and teacher. No matter what historically marginalized or privileged groups the various people in the classroom may belong to, no matter what socially embedded oppressions you wish to draw attention to, equality starts at home, so to speak.
b) Even in an environment where there’s no structural distinction of that sort (e.g., you go to attend an open meeting for students interested in campus safety), it is politically wrongheaded to embrace the idea that there are enormous oceans worth of truths that got established at some point prior to this meeting that everyone attending has to already agree with them — including embracing the terminologies in which they’ve been previously expressed — or else you’re self-evidently a reactionary oppressive jerk and a part of the problem. Because, yeah, even though it can be a royal pain in the ass to reopen and rediscuss the same shit every time someone new comes in, it is a really bad idea to enshrine a set of Established Truths as beyond question. Hello, bricks-for-brains politically-correct know-it-alls, don’t you recognize a fundamentally conservative micropolitical behavior when you see it? It’s supposed to be the change-resistant status-quo-loving conservatives who worship Tradition, remember? You can’t be the nucleus of radical change and social consciousness-raising and still insist that everyone has to swear allegiance to the tradition of Social Justice Wisdoms We’ve Already Established.
c) Under the hood of that Social-Justice Traditions notion is the arrogant attitude that “We know all the categories of oppressed and marginalized people and they’re listed right here. If you are one of them you are one of the people we are trying to empower. If you are not, you are by definition part of the entrenched power structure and your place is silent. Check your privilege. Take a seat. Shut the fuck up and learn of your misdeeds”. Obviously now and then a new category of outsider-oppressed person does get entered onto the rolls but this Traditions behavior makes it difficult; it makes it dependent on organized numbers of outgroup people gaining sufficient traction that they can pry their way in. It certainly isn’t a nurturant environment where individual people can directly testify about their own experiences with coercive society. Also, it fosters the continuation of adversarial social relations for their own sake. Liberation is supposed to only go adversarial in the face of people in positions of power refusing to listen or accommodate; that only those who already insist on being adversaries would get targeted as “other”.