The Source of the over used Phrase PC?

Dcdrac

Philosopher
Dcdrac
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This phrase is sooo hackneyed and worthless, but I have wanndered when it first made its useless appearance.

An acqauitance once told mne that a Washington Post rpeorteer used it to complain about he republicans not being politically correct enough for him becasue they were not right wing enough, in an article writtne in 1976.

I do not know if this is true or not.
 
Also, PC or p.c. Showing an effort to make broad social and political changes to redress injustices caused by prejudice. It often involves changing or avoiding language that might offend anyone, especially with respect to gender, race, or ethnic background. For example, Editors of major papers have sent out numerous directives concerning politically correct language. This expression was born in the late 1900s, and excesses in trying to conform to its philosophy gave rise to humorous parodies.

Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/politically correct
 
The first apearences of the term are in the form political incorrect.
 
(Ahem)

Actually, the term was first used by Lenin and other Bolshevists in the early years of the post-1917 newly-founded USSR.

The term "politically correct" was a term of praise, meaning a person who think "correctly" (i.e., exactly according to what Marx or Lenin would say) about everything.

It is, of course, roughly in this sense in intent that it is used by both the PC and the ant-PC crowd: someone is "politically correct" if he has the "correct" political views about everything.
 
i feel i must apologize for my dyslexia being bad tonight, been pulling 16 hour days last two days sorry.
 
Skeptic said:
(Ahem)

Actually, the term was first used by Lenin and other Bolshevists in the early years of the post-1917 newly-founded USSR.

The term "politically correct" was a term of praise, meaning a person who think "correctly" (i.e., exactly according to what Marx or Lenin would say) about everything.
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I've heard the same story of the PC origin but have never seen it quatified by a reliable source (NewsMax isn't reliable). Where did you read/hear this?

It is, of course, roughly in this sense in intent that it is used by both the PC and the ant-PC crowd: someone is "politically correct" if he has the "correct" political views about everything.
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Pretty much. "PC" is a highly subjective term.
 
MWare said:
Also, PC or p.c. Showing an effort to make broad social and political changes to redress injustices caused by prejudice.
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I disagree with that definition. The "politically" in "politically correct" restricts the term to purely nominative differences; that is, changes in nomenclature, rather than actual changes in society. While it's true that this can be part of a social change, it is, in itself, not about making "broad" social and political change. The perjorative sense of the term comes from the tendency to focus on meaningless semantics rather than actual change.
 
Skeptic said:
(Ahem)

Actually, the term was first used by Lenin and other Bolshevists in the early years of the post-1917 newly-founded USSR.

The term "politically correct" was a term of praise, meaning a person who think "correctly" (i.e., exactly according to what Marx or Lenin would say) about everything.

It is, of course, roughly in this sense in intent that it is used by both the PC and the ant-PC crowd: someone is "politically correct" if he has the "correct" political views about everything.
Click to expand...

Nope. The term politically correct surfaces in Chisholm v. Georgia decided 19th February 1793.

Can't find any solid sources for the Bolshevist claim.
 
The first time I heard it was in 1987. I can place it because I was on the phone and I know what apartment I was in. A friend of mine called from the University of Illinois, where I had attended, and she was attending, school. She related a funny story.

She was standing next to a pop machine, when she heard two young women speaking. She heard one saying, "You're getting Coke? Get Pepsi, it's more PC." "What's PC?" "Politically correct. Coke does business in South Africa."

I'm sure that the two words have been used together before that, but I think it's origin as we know it today dates from the mid to late 1980s. It was originally applied as a sort of self-mocking term.
 
Meadmaker said:
The first time I heard it was in 1987. I can place it because I was on the phone and I know what apartment I was in. A friend of mine called from the University of Illinois, where I had attended, and she was attending, school. She related a funny story.

She was standing next to a pop machine, when she heard two young women speaking. She heard one saying, "You're getting Coke? Get Pepsi, it's more PC." "What's PC?" "Politically correct. Coke does business in South Africa."

I'm sure that the two words have been used together before that, but I think it's origin as we know it today dates from the mid to late 1980s. It was originally applied as a sort of self-mocking term.
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That's more like the way I remember it from the 80's, but it usually had more to do with girlfriends than with colas.
 
Dcdrac said:
i feel i must apologize for my dyslexia being bad tonight, been pulling 16 hour days last two days sorry.
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Heck, it was a good question. I always assumed it was a fairly recent (ie last 20 years) term. Assumptions tend to knock a few points off ones skeptic quotient ...

Charlie (I'm not worthy) Monoxide
 
This first time I remember hearing the phrase was in the early 1980's, perhaps '83 or '84. My mother had gone to a local school board meeting where some Christian fundamentalists were complaining about the reading books the schools were adopting. Apparently, one of the stories had something in it about "magic". This they considered "satanic". They recommended that other, more "politically correct", books be chosen.
 
Dcdrac said:
This phrase is sooo hackneyed and worthless, but I have wanndered when it first made its useless appearance.

An acqauitance once told mne that a Washington Post rpeorteer used it to complain about he republicans not being politically correct enough for him becasue they were not right wing enough, in an article writtne in 1976.

I do not know if this is true or not.
Click to expand...

It's a lot older than that. It dates at least back to progressive pamphlets of the 1940s and 1950s that criticized other progressive groups for not being "politically correct."

It may be older than that, but that's as far back as I can trace it.
 
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