Conservative correctness

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Conservative correctness ("CC"), also known as patriotic correctness ("PC")[1] or right-wing political correctness[2] is a term referring to a brand of political correctness practiced by conservatives. Yes, seriously.

Whereas political correctness attempts to minimize offense through the rebranding of certain words and terms to be neutral or inclusive, its conservative counterpart rebrands terms to include extreme political bias. Concepts which are liked are Americanized or linked with positive thoughts such as freedom or liberty, while the disliked terms are rebranded in the most negative light possible (describing homosexuality as an "unnatural vice," for example). "CC" is especially hilarious considering that the most heated decrying of "PC" usually comes from conservatives.

The first recorded uses were made by Michael Fauntroy[3] and Bill Scher.[4]

Contents

[edit] Examples

  • During the anti-German hysteria of World War I, Sauerkraut became "Liberty cabbage," Hamburgers became "Liberty steak," Frankfurters became "Liberty sausage," Dachshunds became "Liberty dogs," German measles became "Liberty measles," and German Shepherds became "Police dogs" (or in the United Kingdom, "Alsatians"). Liberty does not work that way.
  • David Horowitz's "Academic Bill of Rights," and other poutrage stories about supposed liberal bias in higher education regularly published by sites like Campus Reform and The College Fix. The irony of such sites is that the complaints about "liberal professors" whose critiques of Republicans, religion, "traditional America", etc. hurt their feelings become a right wing version of the supposedly easily-offended, "politically correct", leftist college student that they despise, hence conservative correctness.
  • The rebranding of "French fries" as "Freedom fries" in the Congressional cafeteria after the French refused to support the Invasion of Iraq in 2003. Subsequent extention went into "Freedom toast" for French toast.[5]
  • Attempts to "teach the controversy" by creationists in biology courses, and global warming deniers in environmental science courses.[6]
  • "Urban voters" instead of "black voters"
  • "Welfare queen" instead of minority women. (Even worse, this term makes no sense as most people on welfare are white, the Clinton Administration ended the practice of people getting more welfare for having more kids and people on welfare barely have more children than those not on it.)
  • Encouragement of anti-gay activists to eschew the words "gay" and "homosexual" in favor of such phrases as "unnatural vice" and "anti-Christian."[7]
  • In April 2011, J. Crew published an ad featuring the company's president, Jenna Lyons, painting her son's toenails pink, with the caption, "Saturday with Jenna — Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon." Fox News quickly assembled a few conservative "experts" who denounced the ad as "blatant propaganda celebrating transgendered children."[8] The Media Research Center also called the ad "propaganda pushing the celebration of gender-confused boys wanting to dress and act like girls."[9] (In this case, conservative correctness dictated that anything besides gender/sexual orientation heteronormativity shouldn't be shown in public. And not only that, pink used to be a very masculine color.)
  • Global warming deniers whining about being called "deniers." They prefer the term "skeptic"!
  • "Enhanced interrogation interview techniques."
  • "Homicide bombing."
  • "Insensitive" and "offended" have taken on a meaning of "don't say things I don't like." For example, atheist billboards are insensitive to Christians,[10] Barack Obama's family in France is "offensive" to hard-working Americans (no, really), and any media coverage that is imperfectly adulatory of Christians is anti-Christian.[11]
  • "Hard-working Americans" (also known as "normal" or "regular" Americans) — anyone who votes for the right, but is not rich enough to gain any benefit from voting for the right — so the only reason they vote with the right is to feel "included."
  • "True American Values" or something similar to describe a specific set of wingnut beliefs.
  • Criticism/lack of support for Israel immediately being conflated with anti-Semitism.
  • "Patriotism" to the point of being nationalistic, where American culture and values are thought to be superior to every other nation's cultures and values.
  • Republicans changing the names of committees in the House of Representatives to change "labor" to "workforce" and remove any mention of "civil rights."
  • Centrists (e.g. Bill Clinton or Barack Obama) are/were called "socialist" for not being conservative enough.
  • "Death tax" to refer to estate tax, calling the relaxation of pollution laws the "Clean Air Act," and anything else thought up by Frank Luntz.[12]
  • "Free speech zones."[13]
  • "Private military contractor."
  • "Ethical oil," "clean coal" or any industry-backed campaign to relax environmental oversight.
  • "Pro-life" instead of anti-abortion.
  • "Mediterranean" food instead of "Middle Eastern."
  • "Right-to-work" laws to refer to anti-union laws.
  • "Democrat Party" to refer to the Democratic Party or use of "Democrat" as adjective. (This originates from a reluctance to use a "good" word like Democratic to describe their enemies. No, really.)
  • "Pro-business" or "business-friendly" to describe policies for lower taxes and fewer regulations.
  • "Socialized medicine" to describe health care systems like Medicare. This term was made famous by Ronald Reagan in his 1961 record Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine.
  • It's largely accepted that the only reason most mainstream papers carry Mallard Fillmore is to act as a balance to keep conservatives happy because they were complaining when the only political cartoon in most papers was Doonesbury.
  • Christian Right groups campaining against depictions of sex/violence/homosexuality/profanity/etc. on television.
  • The whole Dixie Chicks "controversy."
  • Opposition to the burning of American flags, which many conservatives believe should be outright illegal. Often, the opposition has the emotional appeal of "soldiers died for the flag!" For a particularly head-explodey form of wingnut fury, burn a Confederate flag.
  • America's Sacred Heroes whether military members or police officers shall never be criticized. Deflecting discussions of police brutality with the emotional "police are heroes and save lives" third-grade level argument.
    • Following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner by police, Fox News and right wing media showed a lot of police apologist CC. After the killings of New York City police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in retaliation for the death of Garner, it just got worse. Many police officers showed CC by turning their backs whenever mayor Bill De Blasio, who dared suggest that police treatment of black Americans is an issue, spoke at press conferences or the officers' funerals. Classy bunch.[16]
  • Banning the words "climate change" outright, as Florida Governor Rick Scott has done with his state employees. Even in print.[17]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Patriotic Correctness is the title of a 2010 book by John K. Wilson.
  2. "The New Political Correctness", Paul Krugman
  3. Michael K Fauntroy. From Political Correctness to Conservative Correctness (www.michaelfauntroy.com, 21st May, 2004)
  4. Bill Scher. Conservative Correctness, (www.liberaloasis.com, 8th February 2007)
  5. "French fries" originated in Belgium, where they are called "pommes de terre frites" or simply "frites." "French toast" has its origins in the 14th century German dish "Arme Ritter" ("Poor Knights"). Legend has it the dish was popularized by an 18th century New York tavern keeper named Joseph French and was called "French's toast." Somewhere along the way, the apostrophe and letter "S" vanished.
  6. http://losalamitos.patch.com/articles/global-warming
  7. http://www.americanindependent.com/178239/christian-conservatives-discuss-strategy-for-fighting-war-against-gays-start-with-semantics
  8. [1]
  9. The MRC's Transgender Freakout
  10. http://friendlyatheist.com/2010/11/29/you-know-its-a-myth-billboard-generates-controversy/
  11. Throwing down the religion card
  12. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-february-5-2013/the-gop-whisperer
  13. http://www.amconmag.com/article/2003/dec/15/00012/
  14. http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2013/06/13/practicing-catholic-nancy-pelosi-calls-late-term-abortion-sacred-ground-n1619536
  15. Pro-Abort is in there, sadly.
  16. http://pix11.com/2014/12/20/video-nypd-officers-turn-away-from-mayor-de-blasio-as-he-enters-police-presser/
  17. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/gov-ricks-scott-anti-science-purge-begins-state-employee-banned-for-uttering-climate-change/
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