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

"Mike Schilling" <mscottschilling@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:KK4Sj.458$J16.60@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> David Friedman wrote:

>> 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.).

I don't know how this fits into the history of the term but I do recall
the 
last time I was in school - early 1990's - the phrase was embraced by the 
university's student newspaper - about as left as you would imagine.

 One article was a list of politically incorrect words and more correct 
substitutions, It was the usual list of gender specific and ethnocentric 
terms.

 While I would be the last person to moan and wail about how 'those evul 
leftists are destroying society' it was rather silly.

>> 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".

 While I agree the PI label usage that of insult by the 'right' of the 
'left' I can easily understand it in terms of a less partisan definition: 
that of an idea or statement as being unconventional and contrary to
popular 
opinion.