“Political Correctness” – A Threat to Free Speech? Overcoming the Dilemma
Lothar Tschapka · 2018 UBT International Conference · 2018
The concept of Political Correctness (PC) arose in the United States in the 1970s. For the past 30 years, it has been subject to criticism as constituting a threat to the “liberty of speech”, as well as a contribution to media bias. The dilemma of PC lies in the fact that, although it aims to protect human and civic rights, it may also result in the exact opposite, namely the diminishing of such rights as the free utterance of thoughts. However, civilised societies are in need of strategies to deal with phenomena such as racism, sexism, hate speech, online firestorms and social media shaming, thus making it impossible to completely abandon any form of PC. This paper examines several ways in which the dilemma of PC endangering free speech can be overcome and new models of the concept found that are suitable for responding to modern challenges in communication and language usage.