{"id":6446,"date":"2016-05-10T05:18:44","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T05:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/05\/10\/paul-johnson-on-political-correctness-and-donald-trump\/"},"modified":"2016-05-10T05:18:44","modified_gmt":"2016-05-10T05:18:44","slug":"paul-johnson-on-political-correctness-and-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/05\/10\/paul-johnson-on-political-correctness-and-donald-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Johnson on Political Correctness and Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article here<\/a>.  I reproduce it in toto<\/em> so that you can read it in peace without being assaulted by advertising.  Bolding added.<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem with Johnson's article is that he does not define 'political correctness' and seems dangerously close to conflating politically incorrect speech with "vigorous, outspoken, raw and raucous speech" and politically incorrect behavior with "vulgar, abusive, nasty, rude, boorish and outrageous" behavior.  See below.  But this would be to ignore the important point I made the other day<\/a>, namely, that to be politically incorrect is not to engage in offensive speech or behavior but to oppose the Left.<\/span><\/p>\n

……………………………………<\/span><\/p>\n

THE MENTAL INFECTION known as \u201cpolitical correctness\u201d is one of the most dangerous intellectual afflictions ever to attack mankind. The fact that we began by laughing at it\u2013and to some extent, still do\u2013doesn\u2019t diminish its venom one bit.<\/span><\/p>\n

PC has an enormous appeal to the semieducated, one reason that it\u2019s struck roots among overseas students at minor colleges. But it also appeals to pseudo-intellectuals everywhere, since it evokes the strong streak of cowardice notable among those wielding academic authority nowadays. Any empty-headed student with a powerful voice can claim someone (never specified) will be \u201churt\u201d by a hitherto harmless term, object or activity and be reasonably assured that the dons and professors in charge will show a white feather and do as the student demands. Thus, there isn\u2019t a university campus on either side of the Atlantic that\u2019s not in danger of censorship. The brutal young don\u2019t even need to impose it themselves; their trembling elders will do it for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The insidious thing about PC is that it wasn\u2019t\u2013and isn\u2019t\u2013the creation of anyone in particular. It\u2019s usually the anonymous work of such Kafkaesque figures as civil servants, municipal librarians, post office sorters and employees at similar levels. It penetrates the interstices of society, especially those where the hierarchies of privilege and property are growing. To a great extent PC is the revenge of the resentful underdog.<\/span> <\/p>\n

Nowhere has PC been more triumphant than in the U.S. This is remarkable, because America has traditionally been the home of vigorous, outspoken, raw and raucous speech. From the early 17th century, when the clerical discipline the Pilgrim Fathers sought to impose broke down and those who had things to say struck out westward or southward for the freedom to say them, America has been a land of unrestricted comment on anything\u2013until recently. Now the U.S. has been inundated with PC inquisitors, and PC poison is spreading worldwide in the Anglo zone.<\/span><\/p>\n

For these reasons it\u2019s good news that Donald Trump is doing so well in the American political primaries. He is vulgar, abusive, nasty, rude, boorish and outrageous. He is also saying what he thinks and, more important, teaching Americans how to think for themselves again.<\/span><\/p>\n

No one could be a bigger contrast to the spineless, pusillanimous and underdeserving Barack Obama, who has never done a thing for himself and is entirely the creation of reverse discrimination. The fact that he was elected President\u2013not once, but twice\u2013shows how deep-set the rot is and how far along the road to national impotence the country has traveled.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Under Obama the U.S.\u2013by far the richest and most productive nation on earth\u2013has been outsmarted, outmaneuvered and made to appear a second-class power by Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia. America has presented itself as a victim of political and economic Alzheimer\u2019s disease, a case of national debility and geopolitical collapse.<\/span><\/p>\n

TIME FOR A SCARE<\/span><\/p>\n

None of the Republican candidates trailing Trump has the character to reverse this deplorable declension. The Democratic nomination seems likely to go to the relic of the Clinton era, herself a patiently assembled model of political correctness, who is carefully instructing America\u2019s most powerful pressure groups in what they want to hear and whose strongest card is the simplistic notion that the U.S. has never had a woman President and ought to have one now, merit being a secondary consideration.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The world is disorderly and needs its leading nation to take charge and scare it back into decency. Donald Trump fits the bill. Other formidable figures, including Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan, have performed a similar service in the past. But each President is unique and cast in his own mold. Trump is a man of excess\u2013and today a man of excess is what\u2019s needed.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\nRelated articles<\/legend>\n
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\"\"<\/a>Obama and Pigeon Chess<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Ernst Bloch on Law and the State (Revised))<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>What Ever Happened to Mario Savio? From Free Speech to No Speech<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article here.  I reproduce it in toto so that you can read it in peace without being assaulted by advertising.  Bolding added. The problem with Johnson's article is that he does not define 'political correctness' and seems dangerously close to conflating politically incorrect speech with "vigorous, outspoken, raw and raucous speech" and politically incorrect behavior … Continue reading “Paul Johnson on Political Correctness and Donald Trump”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[163,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leftism-and-political-correctness","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}