Political correctness may often be used as a pejorative term but it actually has positive connotations as well as the negative that Arno has pointed out.

That effectively converts the term into an ambiguous one. We may easily agree that the three issues that you list have more positive than negative connotations, but the person who believes that trees cause pollution will see the political correctness of the environmentalist as a negative. This does not bode well for any menaingful use of the term. Ec Christiaan Briggs wrote: > Political correctness may often be used as a pejorative term but it > actually has positive connotations as well as the negative that Ray > has pointed out. Political correctness has been used for all sorts of > issues, e.g. civil rights movement, womens rights, and the > environment to name a few. In this sense it is not always something > to be "overcome" but encouraged in some instances. > > Christiaan > > On 24 Feb 2005, at 6:19 pm, Ray Saintonge wrote: > >> Arno M wrote: >> >>> Just out of curiosity - does Political correctness apply as NPOV or >>> as an ideology as described below? >> >> Political correctness is independent of the ideology it supports. >> It can attach to any ideology. It will generally involve supporting >> the "right" views as they prevail in the society out of fear of >> being seen as different. Sometimes the penalty for not being >> politically correct may be social ostracism; in other circumstances, >> such as in Nazi Germany, the penalties could be far more severe. In >> the United States supporting the troops in Iraq is a matter of >> political correctness. >> >> Thus I would see political correctness as neither NPOV nor an >> ideology. At the same time practitioners of political correctness >> have a personal need to believe that their actions express a NPOV, >> something which they can easily confirm in the positive feedback >> loop of their own community. Overcoming political correctness >> requires both insight and courage.