Political correctness is one of the few issues that seriously divides the left. The more extreme left-wingers, especially on college campuses, consider the term synonymous with purity and goodness, but liberals including Alan Dershowitz (who’s likened it to McCarthyism) and Jonathan Chait have lambasted the excesses of a movement that arguably stands for nothing but excesses.
Nonetheless, in a Monday piece, the Daily Kos writer who goes by Doctor RJ dismissed opponents of the PC agenda as “white conservatives” who believe they’re being victimized by “a thought-policing left,” whereas in reality “this is not a situation where people are being silenced from expressing an opinion.” As the Doctor sees it, “When we break the political correctness argument down, it’s really about idiots wanting to say stupid things and do it without anyone pointing out their stupidity.”
According to RJ, a high-profile example of such stupidity is the argument from conservatives that President Obama isn’t properly describing the jihadist threat (bolding added):
This is not a situation where people are being silenced from expressing an opinion. These are cases where stupid opinions are being called stupid and the stupid people who said them don’t want to own up to their stupidity, or confront the implications of what they actually believe. Because whether we call ISIS “radical Islamic terrorists” or murderous schmucks of the East in official correspondence makes not one Goddamn difference to our overall strategic position. And those that think it does are idiots. Therefore, the failure to use a three-word phrase of choice is not a sign of weakness or political correctness—it’s a recognition that our bombs and special forces are more likely to achieve a favorable result than an asshole with bad hair and small hands spewing nonsense.
