Political Language and Political Correctness

The current study addresses doublespeak in the political field. It
focuses on the language of politicians from pragmatic point of view,
how they use doublespeak in their speeches, their intentions behind
using it and non-adherence of Grice's cooperative principle
and maxims (quality, quantity, relevance, and manner).
The study discusses the origin and use of doublespeak that is extensively
employed to mislead people and distort the reality. Focus
is given to the context which is essential in eliciting what is covered
up by the politicians who manipulate the language to achieve their
cunning goals and speak about the unspeakable. The study shows
doublespeak as a violation case of Grice's maxims. It analyzes some
Obama’s speeches as far as doublespeak is concerned and shows
how his speech almost violates all Grice’s maxims and the purposes
behind using doublespeak such as to deform the reality, to make
the bad look good and vice versa. He sometimes uses doublespeak
in his speeches in an attempt to appear good, embellish his public
face, misrepresent the reality, and evade saying the truth.

(English below) Rechte Intellektuelle berufen sich oft auf Nietzsches Konzept der Sklavenmoral, um damit ihre Kritik an ‚political correctness‘ zu untermauern. Diese Verschaltung von Nietzsches Sklavenmoral und ‚PC‘-Kritik ist zutreffend, wie die systematische Analyse ihrer gemeinsamen Elemente zeigt, die zu einer Neubeschreibung von ‚PC‘-Kritik als Privilegienverteidigung führt. Im Gegensatz zur rechtsnietzscheanischen ‚PC‘-Kritik zeigt der linksnietzscheanische Begriff des privilegienkritischen ‚politischen Urteilens‘, dass Politik ein Kampf um Macht und Ansprüche ist, wobei der politische Raum und seine Diskurse immer verregelt und ein Verteilungssystem für Ressourcen und Privilegien sind. Deshalb ist es für eine emanzipatorische Position angebracht, die etablierten Normen kritisch zu hinterfragen und politische Projekte, die sie emanzipativ umschreiben wollen, zu unterstützen. Weil ‚PC‘ als emanzipatives politisches Urteilen Privilegien abbaut, ist es kein zu vermeidender Nebeneffekt, sondern ihr vernünftiger Kern, wenn Privilegierte davon eingeschränkt werden. Der Linksnietzscheanismus hilft, nicht von rechter Aggression überrascht zu werden und ihr entsprechend kämpferisch durch strikte Normsetzung zu begegnen.

Right-wing intellectuals often invoke Nietzsche's concept of slave morality to underpin their criticism of 'political correctness' ('PC'). This interconnection of Nietzsche's slave morality and 'PC' criticism is correct, as a systematic analysis of their common elements shows, which leads to a new description of 'PC' criticism as a defense of privilege. In contrast to the right-wing Nietzschean 'PC' critique, the left-wing Nietzschean concept of a privilege-critical ‘political judgement' understands politics as a struggle for power, in which the space of the political and related discourses are always already regulated and determine the conditions under which resources and privileges are distributed. Therefore, it is appropriate for an emancipatory position to critically question the established norms and to support political projects that aim to rewrite them. Because 'PC', as emancipative political judgement, dismantles privileges, its restricting of the privileged is not a side effect to be avoided but one of its reasonable core effects. Left-wing Nietzscheanism helps to avoid being surprised by right-wing aggression and to counter it vigorously by setting strict political norms.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the term POLITICAL CORRECTNESS in Web Media in Nigeria from November 2017 to February 2019 with reference to a ternary set of parameters, namely type, topic and connotative meaning. Although Nigeria is considered to be the 20th largest economy in the world, society is tarnished by a plethora of problems. Nowadays, the term POLITICAL CORRECTNESS semantically triggers concepts such as negativity, restriction and exaggeration (Talbot, 2007) and it is often used by culture industries (i.e. the Media) with a view to criticizing or mocking events which associate with them. The results showed that the above-mentioned term in Nigerian Web Media has not only negative connotations but it also globally used within specific content.

In what ways is comedy subversive? This vital new book critically considers the importance of comedy in challenging and redefining our relations to race and racism through the lens of political correctness.

By viewing comedy as both a constitutive feature of social interaction and as a necessary requirement in the appraisal of what is often deemed to be ‘politically correct’, this book provides an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to the study of comedy and popular culture. In doing so, it engages with the social and cultural tensions inherent to our understandings of political correctness, arguing that comedy can subversively redefine our approach to ‘PC Debates’, contestations surrounding free speech and the popular portrayal of political correctness in the media and society. Aided by the work of both Slavoj Žižek and Alenka Zupančič, this unique analysis adopts a psychoanalytic/philosophical framework to explore issues of race, racism and political correctness in the widely acclaimed BBC ‘mockumentary’, The Office (UK), as well as a variety of television comedies.

Drawing from psychoanalysis, social psychology and philosophy, this book will be highly relevant for postgraduate students and academic researchers studying comedy, race/racism, multiculturalism, political correctness and television/film.

Political power is (at least to some extent) based on language, claims Charteris-Black (2011).  Therefore, political language is closely related to persuasion and rhetoric. The most successful politicians tell clear-cut and credible stories. De Bruijn (2014) defines this as framing: a communicative strategy which results in an intelligible message which sticks and changes the perception of the audience. Especially since the so-called mediatization of political communication, speakers tend to be more focused on how to form their messages and how to persuade the audience. According to Strömback (2008) media logic has therefore replaced political logic in the field.
This master’s thesis investigated those changes, but focused on the role of metaphorical language within political discourse. As Charteris-Black (2011) pointed out, metaphors  have a very specific rhetorical value. The main goal of this research was therefore to describe the discourse functions of metaphors and characterize the metaphorical language in the Flemish political domain. The corpus material for this analysis consisted of television debates during the Belgian federal elections of 1995 and 2014. This thesis applied Lakoff & Johnson (1980)’s paradigm of conceptual metaphors to the corpus and defined four frames which describe the political images used, namely POLITICS IS WAR, POLITICS IS A JOURNEY, POLITICS IS A CONSTRUCTION, POLITICS IS A HUMAN BODY. 
Secondly, this research compared the metaphorical language of 1995 and 2014 on a qualitative and quantitative level. On the one hand, the quantitative differences between both political periods turned out to be smaller than expected. In 2014, the participants used on average 1,8 metaphors a minute. In 1995, the mean result was 1,5 metaphors a minute. Therefore the impact of the mediatization seems to be less fundamental than the theoretical study of this master’s thesis suggested. Yet, the differences between the Flemish political parties seemed to have shrunk in twenty years’ time. This could mean that the impact of media logic has forced all parties – even the parties in office – to adapt their language to media standards. On the other hand, this master’s thesis researched the qualitative differences between 2014 and 1995. More specifically, this paper investigated the element of framing in both corpuses. The results showed that Flemish politicians use more frames now than twenty years ago. Yet, already in 1995, the metaphorical language of the speakers could be captures in underlying conceptual frames. The mediatization of politics has therefore only reinforced this tendency. Last but not least, this paper concluded that the metaphorical language of 2014 is more creative and outspoken than twenty years ago. Current speakers tended to use more original and strong images than speakers of 1995.

Political Correctness and Freedom of Speech (In Hellinger M and Pauwels A (eds.) (2007) Language and communication: Diversity and change (Vol. 9 Handbooks of applied linguistics) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter)

The term ‘political correctness’ is highly problematic. It is principally used by its detractors and unlikely to be mentioned in recommendations about inclusivity, ethics and general good practice in the media (e.g. Alia 2004). It is largely used to vilify concerns about social inequity.  ‘Anti-PC discourse’ (Cameron 1995) developed in the 1980s as a counter discourse resisting overt efforts by feminist and anti-racist activists to bring about social changes. While a corpus-based study of its use in the British press shows a sharp decline after the Labour victory in 1997 (Johnson, Culpepper and Suhr 2003), it is still in regular use. For example, former Conservative PM, William Hague, has just recently said that ‘we must never put political correctness before the safety of the British people’ (‘Any Questions’, Radio 4, 3 July 2004), in response to community leaders’ concerns about the proportion of young Muslims in police ‘stop and search’ figures since the Terrorism Act.

In the case of ‘PC’ and freedom of speech, then, it is difficult to identify where the ‘problem’ lies and to pinpoint the ‘solution’ that Applied Linguistics might offer, other than a continued engagement with the issues leading to better theoretical understanding of them (e.g. Fairclough 2003). This chapter will explore the tensions surrounding press freedom, shifts in taboo, inclusivity and ethics. It will focus in particular on two controversial cases involving resignation following alleged racial slurs (a mayoral aide in Washington DC in 1999 and a British TV football commentator in 2004).

References
Alia, Valerie (2004) Media ethics and social change Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Cameron, Deborah (1995) Verbal hygiene London: Routledge
Fairclough, Norman (2003) ‘Political correctness’: the politics of culture and language, Discourse and society 14(1): 17-28
Johnson, Sally, Culpepper, Jonathan and Suhr, Stephanie (2003) From ‘politically correct councillors’ to ‘Blairite nonsense’: discourses of ‘political correctness’ in three British newspapers, Discourse and society 14(1): 29-48

Cieľom tejto knihy je dokázať, že štátna represia voči nenávistným prejavom a verejné protesty proti prejavom vulgárnym či hrubým sú všetko praktiky, ktoré sú zlučiteľné s ústavnou ochranou slobody prejavu. Kniha je písaná ako dielo z právnej a politickej filozofie, ktoré je miestami doplnené o teóriu ústavného práva a právnu komparatistiku. Namiesto komentáru k existujúcej súdnej praxi autori ponúkajú skôr sústavu normatívnych argumentov, ako by táto prax mala vyzerať.
Kniha vzbudzuje nielen právnu ale aj politickú kontroverziu. Časť politického spektra a spoločnosti si totiž kladie otázku, či súčasná snaha o kultivovanú debatu nevedie k vybudovaniu systému cenzúry bezprecedentných rozmerov. Potieranie verejne šírenej nenávisti a hrubosti však nie je novinkou, novinkou je skôr rozsah, v akom sa nenávisť a hrubosť prejavuje v digitálnom svete. To vytvára optickú ilúziu, akoby sa dnes sloboda slova obmedzovala v historicky nevídaných proporciách.
Spracovaná téma okrem diskusie vyvoláva aj vášne. Napriek tejto prekážke má publikácia ambíciu osvetliť aspoň niektoré aspekty problematiky aj tým čitateľom a čitateľkám, čo nebudú súhlasiť s jej závermi.

Dall’osservazione dello spazio urbano della città di Roma, effettuato fra gennaio 2011 e giugno 2012, sono stati censiti e documentati 247 graffiti. Ciò che viene presentato in questo saggio è una prima analisi tematica del materiale raccolto. A questa centrale riflessione se ne accompagnano altre incentrate sul contributo che lo studio del graffitismo, osservato e documentato nello spazio urbano e linguistico della capitale italiana, può offrire relativamente a tematiche quali, per esempio, il rapporto diamesico fra lingua scritta e parlata, l’analisi delle varietà giovanili, le interferenze del dialetto e la creazione di neologismi.

Both "je dis ça, je dis rien" and "(I’m) just saying" are known as “annoying phrases” in their respective languages, seemingly because of their being commonly overused in oral discourse. For this reason, they are usually assimilated to “gap fillers.” However, some linguists demonstrated how those supposedly “gap fillers” turned out to be significantly involved in the building of discourse coherence – “how speakers and hearers jointly integrate forms, meanings, and actions to make overall sense out of what is said” (Schiffrin, 1987). Although discourse markers have been dealt with quite extensively in the recent Francophone and Anglophone literatures, the two formulaic expressions have to date received only little attention.

As was the case with many newly independent African nations, Somalia was beset by a language problem whose complexity had begun well before independence and the unification of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland in 1960. With three languages (English, Arabic, and Italian) used as media of communication in government offices and in schools, various Somali administrations struggled to contain the impasse but found no tangible solution. Barely three years after Mohamed Siad Barre seized power in October 1969, he had his military regime introduce the Somali orthography in the Latin alphabet. Based on this milestone, Siad Barre's military rule is highly commended for taking a remarkable step forward in what came to be known as the Somalization project. However, officials of the government and Somali scholarship failed to

"Tabla de contenidos

I. Identidades nómadas: la celebración de lo diferente

1. Gianni Vattimo, Posmoderno. ¿Una sociedad transparente?
2. Gilles Lipovetsky, Espacio privado y espacio público en la era posmoderna
3. Michel Maffesoli, Identidad e identificacieon en las sociedades contemporáneas

II. Soberanías conflictivas: el esencialismo de las diferencias

1. Roger Denson, Un perpetuo regreso al inicio. Nomadismo en la recepción crítica del arte
2. Regis Debray, Dios y el planeta político
3. Todd Gitlin, El auge de la política de la identidad. Un examen y una crítica

III. El giro político: identidades colectivas y el tema de los universales

1. Martin Hopenhayn, Transculturalidad y diferencia (el lugar preciso es un lugar movedizo)
2. Marta Lamas, La radicalización democrática feminista
3. Benjamin Arditi, El reverso de la diferencia
4. Ernesto Laclau, Sujero de la política, política del sujeto
5. Jacues Ranciere, Política, identificación y subjetivación

IV. Tres opciones teóricas: posición de sujeto, sujeto de la falta y subjetivación

1. Ernesto Laclau y Chaantal Mouffe, Posición de sujeto y antagonismos: la plenitud imposible
2. Slavoj Zizek, Más allá del análisis del discurso
3. Etienne Balibar, Sujeción y subjetivación
4. Jeremy Valentine, Antagonismo y subjetividad"

Political cartoons constitute a form of media text whose verbal and visual elements have made them an interesting research field across academic disciplines. The 21st century has witnessed a considerable research on political cartoons. This increasing research interest indicates that political cartoons have successfully constituted a distinct multimodal genre within media discourses. Political cartoons are used to express opinions, construct valuable arguments and provide specific knowledge on contemporary social issues. However, the analysis of the cartoons from linguistic perspectives remains under-researched. This paper aims at contributing to the knowledge of political cartoon research by analyzing the linguistic elements used in the cartoon written texts to illustrate how Nigerian cartoonists specifically use language to construct satire as a means that could be used perhaps to initiating positive social and political reforms in Nigeria. The method of analysis used in this paper as its framework of analysis, comprises of perceptual theory of satire and linguistic analytical framework within the realm of critical discourse analysis. Semiotic discussion on semiotic modes of the cartoons has also been incorporated in the analysis. From the findings of the study, a distinct lexical topology for identifying lexical items and their distribution in the cartoon written texts has been developed. The topology comprises of five items as follows: loan word, coinage, word class, denotation and connotation. Additionally, Nigerian cartoonists use interjections frequently in the cartoon written texts to create satirical impressions about political leaders, because interjections are used to express a strong emotions or feelings. Given the linguistic and nonlinguistic elements contained in the cartoon texts, cartoons could be harnessed to provide additional insights on how language is specifically used in media discourse.

There was a consensus among the elite journalists, mainstream politicians and Hillary Clinton supporters around the world: Donald J. Trump is a 'dangerous clown'. Not only is he badly informed; he is a liar, a misogynist, a birther and a racist. Ergo, Trump is not fit to be the commander-in-chief. One assumes that all of this is not only obvious, but also exudes a negative message. The counter-strategy was limited to pointing out his lies and his racist and sexist slurs. All the counter-discourse, in essence, conveyed one message: he is a dangerous idiot, a moron. This strategy overlooked the power of his message and failed to construct a potent counter-movement.

This article presents an introduction to the author’s thesis that contemporary western mainstream Orientalism is often more concerned with presenting an apologetic picture of Islam, ad hoc designed to serve current ideological and political trends and needs, than with serving as academic discipline in which scholarly methods of research and customary critical approach to sources are applied. Due to an understandable and legitimate desire to reduce the increasingly intense conflict with parts of the Islamic world, official policy in the West has staunchly supported the Orientalists’ presentation of Islam as a religion which is fully compatible with the tenets of Judeo-Christianity. Consequently, the most visible contemporary scholars of Islam are those upholding and promoting this position in their studies.
Several common elements can be distinguished in those Orientalists’ approach. One is selectively disregarding individual features of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad’s career, which are likely to be deemed deplorable by many western readers. Another is the uncritical acceptance of Islamic sacred traditional narratives and a lack of objective scholarly examination of their historicity. The main topic of this article, however, is the Orientalists’ frequent introductory argument in favor of the fundamental compatibility between Islam and Christianity, inasmuch as the Muslims worship the same God as Christians. Notwithstanding the fact that “the same God” theory is the reverberation of Islamic dogma found in the Koran 29:46, and that the Biblical and Christian position on the issue is rarely discussed by the Orientalists who promulgate it, the latter regularly present it not as Islamic creed, but as their own scholarly expert opinion, or even as a matter of common knowledge. The resulting peculiarity – religious instruction classified as objective scholarship and promoted by academia – even if carried out with the noble intention of reducing mistrust and clashes between the two civilizations, in the author’s view turns the wheel of progress of the western science in reverse.

English has many words that speakers sometimes use in a broad, genus way and sometimes in a narrow, species way. The context allows listeners to know which sense is intended. Sometimes one of the meanings derives from a technical word. The existence of a technical or quasi-technical use does not make the non-technical use incorrect. The word animal, for example, is commonly used to refer to beasts, but in biological circles the word includes humans. Another example relates to the female genitals.

Last Friday, fans of both Jordan Peterson and Slavoj Zizek lined up outside together in the rain to find out, shuffling their way into the Sony Centre for Performing Arts in Toronto for what some had promised would be the Debate of the Century. I saw no protesters. Fans of both men stood beside each other in the main hall, using the large screen of Zizek and Peterson hanging in the centre of the room as a backdrop for smiling selfies with friends. As they entered the theatre, Vivaldi’s Spring concerto poured over the audience as they found their seats, shook their umbrellas, and settled in for the debate.
...
Simply by virtue of the public personas they had cultivated, and their monetary attachment to their fans, no performance from either of these two was ever likely to disrupt those carefully constructed brands, and this was likely never going to be anything other than what I would deem ideological amusement.

Please read from original source: https://medium.com/@terrylnewman/happiness-capitalism-vs-marxism-a-missed-opportunity-16f06a234ed1

Introductory courses dealing with sex, gender and sexuality are usually quite biased, going as far as to deny the reality of biology. Drawing on the Catholic tradition (Aquinas), this article presents an accessible argument aimed at restoring deliberative balance in the classroom.

This paper offers an unorthodox appraisal of empirical research bearing on the question of the low representation of women in philosophy.  It contends that fashionable views in the profession concerning implicit bias and stereotype threat are weakly supported, that philosophers often fail to report the empirical work responsibly, and that the standards for evidence are set very low—so long as you take a certain viewpoint.

The paper explores the political and ideological evolution of the mainstream left thought collective in the West. Heavily influenced by the classical Marxian paradigm prior to the 1950s, this collective gradually shifted to the matters of culture and identity between the 1950s and the 1980s. In the left ideological paradigm, this transformation became known as the “cultural turn”; some early left authors also referred to this shift as “Cultural Marxism.” Later, the latter became a favorite word of choice for scholars and writers on the right. Social scholarship on both sides of the political spectrum have frequently stressed the important role of the so-called Frankfurt School in pioneering the abovementioned transformation. This paper argues that, as far as the mainstreaming of the cultural turn, there were more important intellectual sources than that school. Among others, these sources included racialized Marxism of C.L.R James, William Dubois, and Frantz Fanon (1940s-1960s), W. Right Mills, and British Cultural Studies, which gradually phased out economic determinism and the class-based approach of classical Marxism by shifting attention to culture, identity, the Third World, race, and gender.

Political Correctness (PC) is a measure that attempts to prevent all expressions or actions that could offend or marginalize certain people or groups of people. Many of PC’s policies are used to define and correct language. The belief that altering language usage will change the public’s perception of reality has led to an important reform of personal pronouns and gender pronouns. How would Zhuangzi, a Chinese philosopher who lived in the 4th century BC, have reacted to these linguistic reforms? Zhuangzi was a language skeptic, which means that he did not believe that language could convey the true meanings of the world. This view opposes Daoism to Confucianism, which is famous for its vast “language correction project.” Some scholars have established a link between the Zhuangzi and dandyism. Oscar Wilde wrote one of the first reviews of the book. Dandyism does not engage in a Confucian “correction” of names but is instead tempted by what Daoism calls the playful “chaotification” of rules and names. The Daoist yóu (遊), which is aimless roaming, rambling, or sauntering, appears to be the equivalent of the dandyist flâner. The useless activity of yóu or flâner can be interpreted as a measure opposing political correctness spread by Confucianism, Victorian puritanism, and neoliberal culture.

I submit that epistemic progress in key areas of contemporary academic philosophy has been compromised by politically correct (" PC ") ideology. First, guided by an evolutionary account of ideology, results from social and cognitive psychology and formal philosophical methods, I expose evidence for political bias in contemporary Western academia and sketch a formalization for the contents of beliefs from the PC worldview taken to be of core importance, the theory of social oppression and the thesis of anthropological mental egalitarianism. Then, aided by discussions from contemporary epistemology on epistemic values, I model the problem of epistemic appraisal using the frameworks of multi-objective optimization theory and multi-criteria decision analysis and apply it to politically correct philosophy. I conclude that philosophy guided by politically correct values is bound to produce constructs that are less truth-conducive and that spurious values which are ideologically motivated should be abandoned. Objections to my framework stemming from contextual empiricism, the feminine voice in ethics and political philosophy are considered. I conclude by prescribing the epistemic value of empirical adequacy, the contextual value of political diversity and the moral virtue of moral courage to reverse unwarranted trends in academic philosophy due to PC ideology.

„Minimale Moral“ ist eine Streitschrift über die sieben politisch-geistigen Todsünden, deren Konsequenzen jeweils realpolitische Missstände sind. In den sieben Kapiteln

I. Über Wahrheit und Lüge in der Politik: Ent-Täuschungen
II. Krisen und Metaphern: Politische Sprache als Rhetorik
III. Populismus: Zwischen verschmutzter Sprache und verschmutztem Denken
IV. Verbalradikalismus und Hasssprache: Eine Abgrenzung
V. Die Welt des Anderen: Philosophie der Anerkennung
VI. Die europäische Idee schafft sich ab: Solidarität auf dem Prüfstand
VII. Epilog: Über das beredte Schweigen in der Gesellschaft

wird der gegenwärtige Zustand unserer politischen „Kaste“ beschrieben, ihre Defizite und Versäumnisse. Minimale Moral ist demnach jener Zustand politischer Entropie, an dem sich gerade noch ein paar Moleküle bewegen, kurz vor dem absoluten Nullpunkt, dem politischen Stillstand. Ein Zustand kleinstmöglichen energetischen Aufwands, nicht um visionär zu gestalten, sondern um die Macht gerade noch zu erhalten. Konzeptuelle Mängel führen zu Schwächen in der politischen Planung und Ausführung. Große soziopolitische Ideen und Entwürfe werden gegenwärtig nicht mehr entwickelt, doch es besteht Hoffnung, wie am Ende skizziert wird.

Black people against white people! What has happened to the colorfulness of our flesh? Are we still able to look at each other carefully? Are we being compelled, in everyday life, to take a stand for or against a specific color? Why the color discrimination imposed by highly educated ‘black people’ and sanctioned by highly educated ‘white people’ is just as much a form of racism. Originally published in Dutch in 2017.

Springtime for Snowflakes: ‘Social Justice’ and Its Postmodern Parentage by Michael Rectenwald is an eclectic book that merges a personal academic memoir, a lucid outline of the worldviews behind the rise of “political correctness” and “social justice warriors,” and an edifying and often hilarious assembly of Twitter tweets and Facebook posts.

Understand that this book is first and foremost a memoir, not a political or philosophical treatise. It’s about Professor Rectenwald’s personal journey to where he is today in the realm of ideas and politics. Like any good story, it’s a book filled with crises that demand resolutions.