"Politically Correct", a now meaningless term?

Wonderful post from Eric Scheie at Classical Values. Ostensibly its about the how the term "Politically Correct" has been tossed about so as to become meaningless. In truth the post is also much about Intelligent Design, which I would normally discuss at my other blog. Things are quiet at the moment at Radical Centrist so I'll pick up Eric's "Politically Correct" theme as an excuse. Eric has found proponents of Intelligent Design calling Evolution a "Politically Correct" idea. He's right in calling this a meaningless use of the concept.

But calling evolution itself politically correct would seem to torture the whole idea of political correctness.

You want genuine politically correct science? Try Stalinist genetics!

At the risk of sounding like a flaming liberal, there's something about a claim which places H.L. Mencken into the politically correct camp which doesn't pass my smell test -- any more than it would to label William Jennings Bryan (or Savonarola, for that matter) "politically incorrect" .

And if Mencken is to be PC, what about Galileo? Is the Inquisition, then, "politically incorrect"?

I'm not friend of Political Correctness as a concept, and I won't mourn the passing of the term either. I suspect, however, that the phrase will fade out long before the habit or inclination to enforce speech and idea regulation, which seems as strong as ever.

BTW: I also like Eric's points on ID. The more I read about ID as a "movement" the less I am moved by it. As John Derbyshire said in The Corner a bit ago, Intelligent Design "should not be confused with the notion that some sort of intelligent design is operating in the universe." I find the positions of capitalized Intelligent Design objectionable on religious grounds as much as scientific grounds, and I especially dislike the way the idea is being evangelized. In any case, that's for the other blog.

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