# Is the tide about to turn against political correctness? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 8, 2015, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986 "2015-06-08T16:47:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/1 "2015-06-08T16:47:50Z")
Three stories just this week make me think people have finally gotten tired of the BS: Jerry Seinfeld doesn’t perform at college campuses anymore: > **[Jerry Seinfeld Doesn’t Play Colleges, Says The PC Generation Doesn’t...](https://uproxx.com/tv/jerry-seinfeld-doesnt-play-colleges-says-the-pc-generation-doesnt-understand-racism-and-sexism/)** > > Jerry Seinfeld thinks that the younger, more politically correct generation on college campuses doesn’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to racism and sexism. > [@](#): > > He says that he hears that college students — and the entire younger generation — are too politically correct. > > ``` > “Let me give you an example,” he says. “My wife says to [my 14-year-old daughter], ‘Well, you know, in the next couple of years, I think you’re going to want to be hanging around the city more on the weekends, so you can see boys.’ > > And you know what my daughter says? She says ‘that’s sexist.’ > > “They just want to use these words,” Seinfeld continued. “‘That’s racist. That’s sexist. That’s prejudice.’ They don’t know what the [bleep] they’re talking about.” > > ``` I’m a liberal professor, and my liberal students scare me: > **[I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me](https://www.vox.com/2015/6/3/8706323/college-professor-afraid)** > > Vox is a general interest news site for the 21st century. Its mission: to help everyone understand our complicated world, so that we can all help shape it. In text, video and audio, our reporters explain politics, policy, world affairs, technology,... > [@](#): > > This isn’t an accident: I have intentionally adjusted my teaching materials as the political winds have shifted. (I also make sure all my remotely offensive or challenging opinions, such as this article, are expressed either anonymously or pseudonymously). Most of my colleagues who still have jobs have done the same. We’ve seen bad things happen to too many good teachers — adjuncts getting axed because their evaluations dipped below a 3.0, grad students being removed from classes after a single student complaint, and so on. > > I once saw an adjunct not get his contract renewed after students complained that he exposed them to “offensive” texts written by Edward Said and Mark Twain. His response, that the texts were meant to be a little upsetting, only fueled the students’ ire and sealed his fate. That was enough to get me to comb through my syllabi and cut out anything I could see upsetting a coddled undergrad, texts ranging from Upton Sinclair to Maureen Tkacik — and I wasn’t the only one who made adjustments, either. > > I am frightened sometimes by the thought that a student would complain again like he did in 2009. Only this time it would be a student accusing me not of saying something too ideologically extreme — be it communism or racism or whatever — but of not being sensitive enough toward his feelings, of some simple act of indelicacy that’s considered tantamount to physical assault. As Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis writes, “Emotional discomfort is [now] regarded as equivalent to material injury, and all injuries have to be remediated.” Hurting a student’s feelings, even in the course of instruction that is absolutely appropriate and respectful, can now get a teacher into serious trouble. And then there’s the Laura Kipnis case, where writing an op-ed about sexual assault drew a Title IX complaint that students were being “retaliated against” because she had an incorrect opinion. She was just cleared, but the whole proceeding, which amounted to a trial, is chilling to free speech: > **[Investigators find Prof. Laura Kipnis did not violate Title IX](https://dailynorthwestern.com/2015/06/06/campus/investigators-find-prof-laura-kipnis-not-violate-title-ix/)** > > Lawyers hired by Northwestern to investigate two complaints against Communication Prof. Laura Kipnis found last week she did not violate Title IX by writing an op-ed for The Chronicle of Higher Education, according to documents obtained by The Daily... And this is the op-ed she wrote: [https://chronicle.com/article/Sexual-Paranoia-Strikes/190351/](https://chronicle.com/article/Sexual-Paranoia-Strikes/190351/) It seems like if there’s going to be serious blowback against this kind of nonsense, we’re reaching a critical mass now. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/2 "2015-06-08T16:53:05Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > …I’m a liberal professor… What? Who? You? Da fuq? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/3 "2015-06-08T16:58:03Z")
Does the rise of ISIS mean we should be turning against religion? We should not be turning against political correctness. We should be rejecting attempts to define political correctness by its worst extremes and we should be getting back to the real form of political correctness - society as a whole showing its disapproval of individual bigotry. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/4 "2015-06-08T16:59:03Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > What? Who? You? Da fuq? He’s talking about [another thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=758901) but didn’t provide a link. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/5 "2015-06-08T17:02:51Z")
Perhaps, in the sense that the public, as informed by the media, is going to stop putting on its Very Serious Face every time some fringer stands up to define the conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/6 "2015-06-08T17:05:51Z")
I don’t even think it’s “political correctness” per se; it’s just kids at that stage where they’ve got more autonomy without the emotional maturity to go with it. I think Seinfeld has nailed it - they just want to wield the power they have without fully understanding the implications of it. And it’s not just on the liberal side either - plenty of right-wing kids acting out as well. Fortunately, while it’s a sizable number of today’s American youth, it’s not all and likely not even a majority. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/7 "2015-06-08T17:10:00Z")
> [@WHAT is the DEAL with Jerry Seinfeld](#): > > ‘Well, you know, in the next couple of years, I think you’re going to want to be hanging around the city more on the weekends, so you can see boys.’ :shrug: He can be old and cranky all he wants, but the kid has a point. That is kinda sexist. More broadly, it adheres to a number of potentially antiquated assumptions about gender and age norms. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/8 "2015-06-08T17:12:15Z")
It seems these days like being outraged is the new national pastime - we absolutely _must_ have something to be offended by, and if nothing comes by on its own, we’ll invent a new offense to accuse someone of committing. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/9 "2015-06-08T17:15:13Z")
You think it’s new? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/10 "2015-06-08T17:21:11Z")
The offenderati have had their ranks swelled by an influx of young liberals claiming offense at violation of liberal norms. But the offenderati have always been with us. We’ve just become so numb to the Christian-right [version](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/17/notre-dame-protests-over-_n_204400.html) and the 1970s liberal version that we barely notice anymore. The problem is not the people claiming offense. They’ve been around forever even if the composition is changing. The problem is that it is easier than ever to mobilize marginal opinions (social media) and one particular group of those vulnerable to offenderari has grown substantially (adjunct professors). [Note that the Kipnis case ought not be put in this category. The underlying claim was one of what conservatives might call “legitimate” sexual assault, and the retaliation claim against Kipnis for using her position of power to demean the student is probably meritless but neither frivolous nor one involving liberal “offense.” And the process worked as it should. The claim was dismissed. The only weird piece is that an expensive law firm did the investigation, but that’s because there was a conflict-of-interest with the Title XI counselor.] ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/11 "2015-06-08T17:21:11Z")
I do think kids have more power at a younger age these days (and by “these days” I mean the last generation or so), lately exacerbated by the Social Media Amplification Effect. So it’s not new, but it’s worse than it used to be. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/12 "2015-06-08T17:21:15Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > It seems these days like being outraged is the new national pastime - we absolutely _must_ have something to be offended by, and if nothing comes by on its own, we’ll invent a new offense to accuse someone of committing. Ironically, “political correctness” is often just “a new offense to accuse someone of committing”. Very meta. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/13 "2015-06-08T17:24:09Z")
Political correctness is a pale shadow of patriotic correctness. How many of your Facebook friends are sharing posts that go along the line of “How DARE we call what Caitlyn Jenner did courage? THESE are the real courageous ones!” superimposed over a picture of US troops. We can never offer praise to anyone, because we praise the troops to the exclusion of all others. Armed Forces Day. Veterans Day. Memorial Day. Independence Day. Flag Day. Every day of the year, for that matter. All days where the correct thing to do is place your palms together, tilt your head slightly to one side, place your hands to the lower side of your face, and in your gushiest voice say “the troops” while looking dreamily skyward. Gotta stand for that national anthem at every game, with instructions from the PA to put your hand over your heart. Gotta force the kids to recite the pledge every day (ESPECIALLY the 'under God" line) while simultaneously posting lies on Facebook about how they don’t do this anymore for fear of offending anyone. Gotta whine about Pepsi omitting"Under God" from commemorative cans in 2002 (even though it wasn’t even Pepsi). Every time a celebrity dies, gotta whine about how DARE we think about them when we SHOULD be gushing over the troops. Most importantly, gotta constantly whine about political correctness. ---
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/14 "2015-06-08T17:26:39Z")
I’m offend by this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/15 "2015-06-08T17:27:54Z")
Exactly. All politics is identity politics. The reaction against the new members of the offenderati class is mostly a result of the content of those opinions (radical feminist, generally) and not to the general phenomenon of using offense to silence and punish political opponents, which has long been an equal opportunity tactic. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/16 "2015-06-08T17:29:01Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It seems like if there’s going to be serious blowback against this kind of nonsense, we’re reaching a critical mass now. This sentence makes me feel unsafe. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/17 "2015-06-08T17:29:55Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Political correctness is a pale shadow of patriotic correctness. How many of your Facebook friends are sharing posts that go along the line of “How DARE we call what Caitlyn Jenner did courage? THESE are the real courageous ones!” superimposed over a picture of US troops. We can never offer praise to anyone, because we praise the troops to the exclusion of all others. Armed Forces Day. Veterans Day. Memorial Day. Independence Day. Flag Day. Every day of the year, for that matter. All days where the correct thing to do is place your palms together, tilt your head slightly to one side, place your hands to the lower side of your face, and in your gushiest voice say “the troops” while looking dreamily skyward. Gotta stand for that national anthem at every game, with instructions from the PA to put your hand over your heart. Gotta force the kids to recite the pledge every day (ESPECIALLY the 'under God" line) while simultaneously posting lies on Facebook about how they don’t do this anymore for fear of offending anyone. Gotta whine about Pepsi omitting"Under God" from commemorative cans in 2002 (even though it wasn’t even Pepsi). Every time a celebrity dies, gotta whine about how DARE we think about them when we SHOULD be gushing over the troops. Most importantly, gotta constantly whine about political correctness. The “Why do some people have to politicize everything?” thread is two doors down. Good work by the way. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/18 "2015-06-08T17:30:55Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > The “Why do some people have to politicize everything?” thread is two doors down. > > Good work by the way. How does one not politicize political correctness? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/19 "2015-06-08T18:51:39Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > It seems these days like being outraged is the new national pastime - we absolutely _must_ have something to be offended by, and if nothing comes by on its own, we’ll invent a new offense to accuse someone of committing. True. Just look at the OP, and how outraged it is that people are trying to speak in a fair manner. Just look at Seinfeld, and how outraged he is that a teenager is (gasp!) _snarky_ at her mother. Outrage is indeed a national pastime, but I’m not sure you’re correctly identifying all the players. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986/20 "2015-06-08T18:56:12Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Outrage is indeed a national pastime, but I’m not sure you’re correctly identifying all the players. How _dare_ you! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tide-about-to-turn-against-political-correctness/721986.md?page=2)