politically correct

comparative more politically correct · superlative most politically correct · alternative PC · alternative P.C.

1. governmentPossessing or conforming to the correct political positions; following the official policies of a government or political party.

   I am here to tell you that we are going to do those things which need to be done, not because they are politically correct, but because they are right. We are going to pass a civil rights bill if it takes all summer.

   1964 March 23, Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks in Atlantic City at the Convention of the United Auto Workers

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   Sentiments and expressions of this inaccurate kind prevail in our common, even in our convivial, language. Is a toast asked? ‘The United States’, instead of the ‘People of the United States’, is the toast given. This is not politically correct.

   1793, U.S. Supreme Court, Chisholm v State of GA, 2 US 419 (1793)

   [On] the one hand we should demand that the poet's work conform to the correct political tendency, on the other hand we have the right to expect that his work be of high quality. … I want to show you that the political tendency of a work can only be politically correct if it is also literarily correct. That means that the correct political tendency includes a literary tendency. For, just to clarify things right away, this literary tendency, which is implicitly or explicitly contained in every correct political tendency – that, and nothing else constitutes the quality of a work.

   1934/1970, Walter Benjamin, "The Author as Producer" (address at the Institute for the Study of Fascism, Paris, April 27, 1934), as translated by John Heckman for New Left Review 1/62, July-August 1970

   Lenin gave an all-round substantiation of the impossibility of implementing the United States of Europe slogan under capitalism. He said this slogan merged with socialism and acquired political meaning only under socialism. It was politically correct also from the standpoint of the need to overthrow the three reactionary monarchies of Europe—that of Russia, of Germany and of Austria-Hungary.

   1969, Y. F. Sopin, chapter 5, in The Bolshevik Party's Struggle Against Trotskyism, page 214

   Synonyms: dogmatic, orthodox · Antonyms: heretical, unorthodox, politically incorrect

2. derogatoryidiomaticsometimesSensitive to giving offense on the grounds of race, sex, etc.

   A man cannot be politically correct and a chauvinist too.

   1970, Toni Cade, The Black Woman

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   Why do they call camels "Ships-of-the-desert" ? [...] Because they're full of Iranian seamen. (NOW, being politically correct you must, of course, substitute "martian" What a clever joke this becomes! Hopefully, there are no martians listening. )

   1981 December 14, G:kirk, “Yet Another Camel Joke”, in net.jokes (Usenet), message-ID <anews.Apopuli.106>

   DS Gavin Troy: But why would they want to kill her? Unless it was adultery. I suppose they could have been arse bandits. DCI Tom Barnaby: What? Troy: In the wood. Barnaby: You mean homosexuals, Troy. Troy: Well, that's what I said. Barnaby: You are as politically correct as a Nuremberg rally.

   1997 March 23, Anthony Horowitz et al., “The Killings at Badger's Drift”, in Midsomer Murders

   Ah, no inhibitions Make no conditions Get a little outta line I ain't gonna act Politically correct I only wanna have a good time

   1997, Shania Twain, Mutt Lange, “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”, in Come On Over, performed by Shania Twain

   The geth serve as a cautionary tale against the dangers of rogue AI, and in Citadel Space they are technically illegal. Advocacy groups argue, however, that an AI is a living, conscious entity deserving the same rights as organics. They argue that continued use of the term "artificial" is institutionalized racism on the part of organic life, the term "synthetic" is considered the politically correct alternative.

   2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Computers: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Codex entry

   It appears that in trying to solve one problem - bias - the tech giant has created another: output which tries so hard to be politically correct that it ends up being absurd.

   2024, Zoe Kleinman (technology editor), "Why Google's 'woke' AI problem won't be an easy fix" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68412620 (BBC News)

3. derogatoryidiomaticgovernmentStereotypically left-wing; possessing or conforming to stereotypical left-wing social views.

   From foie gras produced without making birds suffer to "sustainable" fish, British retailers and restaurants are fast embracing politically correct food, helped by celebrity-fuelled pressure.

   2010, “Politically correct food on the menu in Britain”, in The Independent

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   Don Imus, Bernard McGuirk, Trent Lott, Larry Summers, the Duke lacrosse team, Jimmy the Greek, the kid who yelled "water buffalo" at Penn, Howard Cosell, Jon Stewart, Chief Illiniwek, Jackie Mason and "South Park" all have in common only one thing: They have not been Politically Correct.

   2007 May 3, Daniel Henninger, “After Imus: End the Executions”, in Wall Street Journal

   Even when mounted in the context of animal-centric conferences or events, exhibits of “animal art” routinely display works consisting of animal parts or taxidermied animals—most of which can be viewed while people are eating their politically correct vegan lunch.

   2017, Linda Kalof, The Oxford Handbook of Animal Studies, page 434

   Synonyms: right-on

present singular third person politically corrects · participle present politically correcting · participle past politically corrected · past politically corrected · alternative PC · alternative P.C.

1. transitiveTo modify in a way that is considered more respectful to minorities.

   There is nothing new or progressive in the politically corrected vocabularies that now amuse the prejudiced.

   1998, Humphrey McQueen, Temper Democratic: How Exceptional is Australia?, Wakefield Press, →ISBN, page 190

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   Thus, although Pastoral Paul contradicts, updates, and politically corrects Paul of the authentic letters in accordance with the horizontalized, non-sectarian interest of the Pastorals, he does this as an extension of a decidedly this-worldly, conservative paraenesis which may be seen as Paul's own contradiction of his apocalyptic eschatological interpretation.

   2005, Lone Fatum, “Christ Domesticated”, in Jostein Ådna, editor, The Formation of the Early Church, Mohr Siebeck, →ISBN, page 196

   Yet we follow McIntyre into the jungles as eagerly as if we were children lost in an adventure novel by (a politically corrected) H. Rider Haggard.

   2016 February 26, Ben Brantley, “Review: You See ‘The Encounter’ With Your Ears”, in New York Times

2. transitiveTo modify in a way that conforms more to the official position of a government or political party.

   1 more example

   Even a senior Chinese scholar-official who had been politically correcting my arguments and opinions throughout the conference smiled and accepted that the academic standards to which we both had to comply were quite different—I would be ridiculed by my own colleagues were I to adopt the standards of China, which he nonetheless deemed the (officially sanctioned) correct ones.

   2013, Andrew Martin Fischer, “Preface”, in The Disempowered Development of Tibet in China, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page xxxiv