How the right has weaponised Political Correctness
Last week I wrote about the history of Political Correctness and its development online, this week I wanted to delve deeper into how the term has embedded itself into contemporary politics. The term has increasingly been used to spread a populist message of the ‘liberal elite’ silencing the ‘common man.’ The right has increasingly used online spaces to spread this message. Trump’s twitter usage or the creation of a variety of right-wing censor free, ‘free speech’ orientated applications are some examples.
During the republican primaries Fox news Host Megyn Kelly asked why Trump had referred to women as ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ and ‘slobs.,’ he replied that “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct.” He continued I’ve been challenged by so many people; I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either.” Trump became the figurehead for the anti-pc movement, a man speaking his mind not worried about the liberal backlash. In reality he was platforming bigoted, misogynistic and racist language. When Vox asked Trump supporters at a rally why they supported the future president the majority answered that they approved of his stance on political correctness. It became a deciding factor in the 2016 election, it became a cultural revolt lead by Trump.
Trump used Twitter to relentlessly share opinions which could have been seen as unfavourable in normal political arenas. His twitter use, however erratic, was seen by many of his supporters as representing a new age in politics whereby he could tweet and say what he wanted. No matter how untrue or offensive he was, his supporters continued to revel in his openness and refusal to conform to the apparent liberal agenda.
He was eventually removed from Twitter after the events of the Capitol riots and the perceived risk of his ability to use the platform to incite further violence. He tweeted from the @Potus account after his ban saying he would “look at building out our own platform in the future” and that “Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH.” Rather than admitting his role in events he utilised the apparent enemy of ‘political correctness’ to further rally his supporters against his supposed suppression. This is another populist tactic adopted by Trump online, feeding the frenzied anti-pc movement further.
Another example of apparent suppression was the removal of Parler from all major app sites. Parler was a conservative led Twitter/Instagram style social media platform, it was removed for failing to rein in hate-filled and violent speech, accounts with swastikas as their profile picture, direct threats of violence and racist posts were not hard to find on the site. Josh Hawley a senior republican senator, wrote a piece for the New York Post claiming that that “the alliance of leftists and woke capitalists hopes to regulate the innermost thoughts of every American.” He argued that conservatives were the counterculture and corporations were acting against the right, another inflammatory statement used to rally the cultural revolt against Political Correctness. For him the Parler shut down was evidence of the woke agenda silencing ‘free speech.’ Hawley was also the only senate member to vote against the anti-Asian hate crime bill in 2021 claiming it “raised big free speech questions.”
This populist rhetoric created by the anti-pc movement has spiralled online, some of the more extreme examples are Qanon and the incel movement. Whilst larger online sites have attempted to limit discourse around this, fringe sites still exist where these views can be spread. Qanon has become an almost defining feature in Trump rallies, it may have been destined to stay an underground conspiracy theory, started by the anonymous ‘Q’ on the site 4chan, but it has fully developed within the online space and actual political discourse. The root of the issue lies within Trump being the saviour from ‘big’ media, governments and business members covering for elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles, its roots lie in this populist argument we have seen throughout the anti-pc movement.
In England more recently Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman accused Political Correctness of limiting the police in their attempts to persecute Islamic extremists. The Daily Mail describes the “terror of accusations of racism, combined with the official determination to celebrate diversity, meant some gangs could operate with impunity.” Suella Braverman said in her speech that “there can be no place for political correctness in our national security. In fact I’d like to banish it all together.” Political correctness has become commonplace in political conversations across the world, between politicians and the average person.
It is obvious then that this largely online orchestrated attack on Political Correctness has embedded itself in modern political discourse. It has taken on more ridiculous and populist forms so the right can weaponize the apparent ‘woke,’ ‘silencing ‘ agenda for their own political gain. Both sides seem to misunderstand the other calling out what seems to be the fringes of the actual base conversation of respect and education. The term has been appropriated to benefit political campaigns, creating a false evil which in reality is more focussed on inclusion, and at the very base level respect. Language is powerful and the discussions surrounding political correctness need to be less polarising and more around how inclusion can be used on all sides of the political spectrum.
