political correctness

plural political correctnesses

1. uncountableAn avoidance of expressions or actions that can be perceived to exclude, marginalize or insult people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.

   Political correctness cripples discourse, creates ugly language and is generally stupid.

   2004, George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 72

   2 more examples

   The notion of political correctness has ignited controversy across the land. And although the movement arises from the laudable desire to sweep away the debris of racism and sexism and hatred, it replaces old prejudice with new ones.

   1991 May 4, George H. W. Bush, “President George H.W. Bush's commencement address at the University of Michigan”, in The Michigan Daily

   I mean, people who talk about political correctness as being a kind of thought police have no idea of what a thought police is. But political correctness does have the same mentality. It means that intellectual argument is doomed. Objective truth simply becomes a thing to jeer at, because obviously there's no such thing as objectivity—unless of course you're politically okay, in which case you can be objective. Any child can see through that, but many adults can't.

   2002 October, Christopher Hitchens, “The Power of Facing”, in The Atlantic

2. uncountableAn avoidance of expressions or actions that are disadvantageous or disquieting to institutions or authorities.

   1 more example

   Methodological considerations are further complicated by implications of political correctness in evaluating texts which, aside from their history and original form, have become accepted in a certain recension (vulgata) by institutions (typically, the national churches) which, in the opinion of some scholars, should be credited with a special status.

   2020, Alessandro Bausi, “7.5 Philological practices: Ethiopic”, in Philipp Roelli, editor, Handbook of Stemmatology: History, Methodology, Digital Approaches, De Gruyter, →DOI, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 481

3. countableThe result or product of being politically correct.