"'The savage injustice of the Europeans [discovering America] rendered an event, which ought to have been beneficial to all, ruinous and destructive to several of those unfortunate countries,' [Adam] Smith wrote [_Wealth of Nations_, IV, 1, i, 470], revealing himself to be an early practitioner of the crime of 'political correctness,' to borrow some rhetoric of contemporary cultural management. ...With 'the superiority of force' the Europeans commanded, 'they were enabled to commit with impunity every sort of injustice in those remote countries.'"--Noam Chomsky, quoting Adam Smith in Year 501: The Conquest Continues, p. 4, and noting with irony how a favorite of the Right (whose actual economics views, as Chomsky and Shalom, among others, point out elsewhere, are not exactly as the Right pretends), is making a (quite accurate) statemetn which today would be blasted as "Political Correctness" by the Right in its own war to ensure "correct" deference to the militarism, the 'right' to exploit for economic gain, and the power of the haves over the have-nots.
"[P]olitical correctness" does not exist, and has never existed, as a body of political ideas. It is not an ideology, like socialism, liberalism, 0 or nationalism, nor is it an organized (or disorganized) social movement. Nor is it a world view, a moral philosophy, a partisan organization, an intellectual trend, or even an academic faction. As a description of political ideas, "political correctness" expresses, literally, nothing. It is an empty vessel of a signifer into which meaning is poured on a purely expedient and ad hominem basis." "Enforcers of today's brittle status quo now employ "politically correct" to describe any political position which disputes the soundness of economic life, the validity of the assertion that racism and sexism no longer influence our society, the infallibility of corporate power, the nobility of right-wing culture, the value of militarism, or the wisdom of any given policy of the Reagan-Bush tenure."--Jamin Raskin, from "The Fallacies of 'Political Correctness'" in January Z.
On 'Political Correctness'...
--HBPoliticians and mass media have taken to denouncing attempts to impose 'political correctness' (an alleged left-wing dogma with no tolerance for racism or gender inequality). But the politicians and media sounding the loudest alarms often wield enormous clout to define America's politically acceptable boundaries. In effect, "political correctness" is a taunting phrase shouted by the powerful as an accusation against fainter voices trying to get a word in edgewise. The more the powers-that-be flog the P.C. horse, the more their own hysteria--and intolerance--gain momentum. Along the way, they reinforce the rigorous limits on political discourse already in place.
Usage: If you want to trash campus activists or anyone else you'd like to silence, accuse them of "political correctness." That way, with two words, you can accuse them of trying to do what you've just done--label certain views as beyond the pale of reasonable political discussion.