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Friday, December 3, 2010

A Twisted “History of Political Correctness” « Student Activism

A Twisted “History of Political Correctness” « Student Activism

A Twisted “History of Political Correctness”

So yesterday on Twitter someone sent me a link to a video, and asked me whether I’d seen it. The video turned out to be The History of Political Correctness.

“The History of Political Correctness” is an oddity, even on its surface. It’s a cheaply produced 23-minute documentary hosted by a guy named William Lind. The video is festooned with stock footage of marching Nazis and long-haired hippies, and is dedicated to the theory that every left-liberal cultural development of the last half century — from political correctness and the student movements of the sixties to afrocentrism, gay pride, environmentalism, and sexual promiscuity — can be laid at the feet of the social theorists of the Frankfurt School.

This charmingly paranoid thesis is presented in over-the-top terms, as when Lind offers an introduction to the