Re: Larry Niven: Terrorize Latinos to Solve Health Care Crisis

David Friedman wrote:
> In article <io4Sj.456$J16.421@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> "Mike Schilling" <mscottschilling@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>>>> "Politically  incorrect" is a term of admiriation and
>>>> congratulation;
>>>> it means "Good for you for sticking it to the liberals".
>>>
>>> I think that is connotation but not denotation. I could imagine
>>> someone advising against saying something because it was 
>>> politically
>>> incorrect, and so would have undesirable consequences.
>>
>> Who would this someone be?  It couldn't be a liberal, because only
>> conservatives use that phrase.
>
> Actually, I think the phrase originated on the left--probably 
> further
> left than liberal.

But hasn't been used by that sector for many years (if it ever was; 
it's quite possible that the whole thing is an urban legend.).

> But it was enthusiastically adopted by critics of
> the left. And I don't think its usage is at present limited to
> conservatives, in any reasonable sense of the term, although I
> wouldn't expect to hear it from a reasonably orthodox liberal.

Use whatever term you like for "people eager to dismiss all liberal of 
leftish ideas."

>
> I can easily imagine an older professor, after listening to a 
> younger
> professor's description of a point he intended to make in class,
> advising the latter that using such a politically incorrect example
> would make students less likely to understand and accept the idea it
> was intended to illustrate.

Who is this older professor, that he would say "politically incorrect" 
rather than "potentially offensive" or "likely to create more heat 
than light"  Not a liberal, because that phrase has been poisoned by 
the Limbaughs of the world.  Not a conservative, because he uses PC to 
mean "offensive to people with mush for brains".