“Politically correct”起源于上个世纪初，与在共产党员及美国社会主义者之间围绕斯大林主义的教条式运用有关。忠于党的路线，即为政治正确。上个世纪70年代，美国新左翼开始采用这个用法。对于政治正确的这个非常“不纯的血统”，政治正确的狂热鼓吹者讳莫如深。至80-90年代，特别是里根总统当政期间，政治正确受到广泛批评，其中的代表作品The Closing of the American Mind (by Allan Bloom)还成了那个时期的畅销书。随着时代的推移，政治正确这个大筐里装的东西越来越多，其中也不乏一些积极的成分，如反对种族歧视，性别歧视等等。这也是我不完全反对政治正确的原因。但左翼分子在这个筐里塞了太多的私货，使得现在越来越多的清醒的人们不愿再被他们绑架。现在的政治正确几乎是无处不在，无时不在，已演变成一种文化马克思主义，它的典型特征就是没有容忍度。对此我们有必要保持适度的警惕。轰轰烈烈的共产主义运动已成过眼云烟，但对此没有切肤之痛的西方左翼却皮痒地很，他们就像一场流行病爆发过后残留的病毒，伺机卷土重来。社会主义的幽灵正在欧洲，北美上空徘徊，并且正在蚕食西方民主政体，侵蚀我们来之不易的言论自由空间。而对美国政治的日渐左倾，教育及学术界的天然左倾，苏联东欧的崩溃（没了对手），及汹涌而来的劣质移民大潮都起了很大的作用。大江大河及海洋常常有非常强大的自我净化功能，但中国的扬子江，黄河不照样也被污染了，现在连海洋也被污染了，因为这种自我净化功能也有它的limit。所以我看美国的政治家们及普通公民，可千万不要学中共，对其制度有太高的不切实际的自信。如果今天从墨西哥或中国空运一亿人到美国，那十年二十年后的美国将不再是今天的美国，而是充满了拉美味，中国味，成为一个非常腐败的国家。美国这个大熔炉中如果塞满了废铜烂铁，总有一天，她也会熄火。下面我想从几个事件来看看政治正确是否有点过头了。
2． Princeton students stand up to political correctness
去年在普林斯顿大学，200名黑人正义同盟的成员向校方提出了很多无理要求：The Black Justice League’s demands include a dorm for those who want to celebrate black affinity; mandatory diversity training; and a requirement that students take a course on so-called marginalized peoples. They also want the renaming of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the removal of a mural of President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson, who graduated from Princeton in 1879 and who served as the university’s president from 1902 until 1910, formally segregated the federal workforce.
可是他们的这些要求受到了更多的普林斯顿学生的阻击：1,300 members of the university community signed a petitionto ensure that Princeton “maintains its commitment to free speech and open dialogue and condemns political correctness to the extent that it infringes upon those fundamental academic values.”
3． 政治正确已经走得太远了，以下是加拿大CTV近期作的一个调查，'No offence': Has political correctness gone too far?
Canadians are known as the most polite citizens in the world and a new poll digs into the motivations and reasons for our political correctness. According to a survey by the Angus Reid Institute, the majority of Canadians say we’ve gone too far when it comes to our need to say “no offence.”
Thepublic opinion poll found that 80 per cent of Canadians say that “it seems like you can’t say anything without someone feeling offended.”
Still, about four in five Canadians say that there are some things you “just shouldn’t express in front or people you don’t know.”
When it comes to motivations for keeping quiet, response held true to the Canadian stereotype: 87 per cent said they self-censor because they “want to be polite” while only 13 per cent said they bit their tongue because they don’t want to be judged.
Millenials, or people aged 18 to 34, were most likely to say that people are too easily offended compared to other age groups, and while both genders are equally likely to self-censor, men are more likely to say too many people are easily offended by other people’s language.
When the answers were examined through a political lens, only 21 per cent of Conservatives said people should choose their words more carefully, compared with 40 per cent of Liberals and 38 per cent of New Democrats.
The online poll was conducted among 1,510 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum.
下面是加州大学的一位在校女生对政治正确的感受，我感觉说得非常诚恳。
I believe passionately that Political Correctness is an essential tool in liberating oppressed minorities, and that we should be careful how we use language.However, there is a point at which political correctness makes people afraid to speak, which is the opposite of its intent. Political Correctness started as an essential movement to remove the fear of speech minorities and to ensure that everybody felt comfortable and safe in their environments. However, with this onslaught of constant offense and deep emotional injury from the slightest accidental political incorrectness, especially on college campuses, the PC movement has begun to achieve the exact opposite of its goal— to make people feel unsafe and afraid to speak up. Intolerance occurs on both sides of the political spectrum. We all need to learn to be more sensitive and thoughtful with our speech.
可见现在在校园内，狂热的政治正确诉求有时已经到了动辄得咎，人人自危的状态。
最后解释一下为什么知识分子大多拥护社会主义，哈耶克的这个解释至今仍然适用。
Friedrich Hayek: Why Intellectuals Drift Towards Socialism。
