My friend sent me this email:
There is an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term.
This year’s term was “Political Correctness.”
The winner wrote:
“Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.”
Think he nailed it?
I replied with my own take:
Political correctness:
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A doctrine which allows politicians to sleep better. That is to say, deceptive euphemisms are used to replace less palatable terms so as to obfuscate as much as possible any immoral act by rerouting an otherwise grotesque concept via the use of semantic wizardry. For example, a cage in which humans were made to slave away in, during which they were frequently maimed, starved, and killed would be referred to as a “concentration camp”; the brutal act of killing innocent civilians during a ritual of mass murder would be referred to as “collateral damage”.
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The modern day fruition of Orwell’s Newspeak. In the near future, public schools will mandate the use of dictionaries that must be certified “politically correct”.
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An example of an oxymoron – to say politics can be correct is akin to saying music can be silent, or Chuck Norris can be frightened.
Anyone want to add their own?