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The term politically correct is widely understood to have originated from Ivy League Universities in the United States, and typically tends to refer to speech codes seeking to make offensive references to such areas as race, gender and sexuality unacceptable. As such, the term is strongly associated with the political left and has been widely adopted in the form of the hate crime laws now becoming prevalent in many European states. Accordingly, particular concerns associated with political correctness include the erosion of freedoms of speech.

However, the term has been endlessly appropriated to the extent that it is frequently unclear as to what it refers. Many left wing commentators have observed that the term is only ever used as an insult by the right, while certain figures on the right have appropriated the term to suggest that religious groups constitute an oppressed minority. To others, the term politically incorrect has simply come to mean any form of subversive anti-establishment rhetoric.


Notice a interwikiGoogle search turns up mostly sites lampooning the concept.
-- DavidLucifer


See other InterestingMemes.


Version 6, saved on Monday, December 16, 2002 8:35:02 pm.