When Political Incorrectness Becomes Politically Correct

Last updated on: August 1, 2016 at 5:47 pm by Sam Rocha

When Political Incorrectness Becomes Politically Correct 2016-08-01T17:47:54-05:00 Sam Rocha

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Photo via https://www.goodfreephotos.com.

I’ve already shown how an ideological critique of “political correctness” can, and in today’s GOP indeed has already, become a form of politically correctness. This shows that any political inflection of value on what is correct will always fall into a form of political correctness. But what about the other side of the expression? The correct side?

Donald Trump has recently received an enormous amount of criticism for his treatment of the Khizr and Ghazala Khan, parents to an Army captain who died in combat. What us interesting in this case is that Trump and his followers do not seem to object to this criticism on the grounds of political correctness. No one seems to say that these mourning parents are being “politically correct.”

What seems obvious to both sides is that there are unobjectionably “correct” claims to be made: Captain Kahn is a war hero and the Kahn’s are a Gold Star family (which also happens to be Muslim). In this case Trump is being rebuked not only for his tone and substance, but also for the implication of his sloppy rhetoric that threatens the truth-value of these two basic facts.

In other words, sometimes being incorrect means you are wrong. Crazy, I know. And being wrong about something, political or otherwise, should never be celebrated as a political virtue. After all, sensible critics of political correctness use the word “correctness” in an ironic way precisely to show that what is being asserted as true is in fact less than true and perhaps false.

What has been lost in the recent inversion of values–or perhaps the simple loss of values–that resulted in a Trump presidential candidacy in the party that once defended the truth of abolition and anti-slavery, is not only the fact that a critique of “political correctness” has now become a politically correct form of rhetoric, it is also the fact that a base level respect for correctness has been lost as well.

To listen to Trump is not only to see the party of so-called “family values” descend into self-parody, it is also to see the pure narcissistic relativism which has no purchase on what is correct or incorrect anymore. This form of postmodern political populism, in my view, is only a few steps away from outright nihilism.

pastoral philosophy

Political Theology

Previous Post

August 1, 2016

More on Pope Francis, ISIS, and Muslims at Catholic Mass

Next Post

August 3, 2016 My Letter to the Readers of Patheos Catholic

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category aesthetics audio class notes conversation Education En Español Interviews jazz jazzhop link Liturgy Music Nonsense pastoral philosophy phenomenology Philosophy philosophy of education photo Poetry Political Theology quote Race regular Schooling Uncategorized video Weekly Apocalypse

Select a Month June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Christian group is associated with the "Anabaptist" tradition?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Mennonites Episcopalians Calvinists Lutherans