Political Correctness has no meaning

The argument

Because it has no fixed meaning, when someone says something is "politically incorrect", or someone else dismisses something as "political correctness in overdrive", all they are really saying is, "I don't believe that is a legitimate opinion, however, I don't want to challenge it." The phrase does no descriptive work. It names no property that the opinion in question actually has, sets out no standard the opinion has failed to meet, and identifies no error in it. What it does instead is assign the opinion to a category that is understood in advance to be unserious, and that assignment is treated as sufficient. For example, if someone disagrees with those who believe the Washington Redskins is an offensive name for a sports team, they may, as Del Jackson Miller did, dismiss their opinions as "political correctness on overdrive." Notice what is absent from that response. It offers no account of why the name is inoffensive, engages no argument about who is entitled to judge that, and answers none of the reasons the objectors gave. In referring to their arguments in this way, Miller is dismissing them offhand without engaging with them, and the label supplies the appearance of a reply where no reply has been made. This is why political correctness, as a stand-alone idea, does not exist. There is no shared definition to appeal to, no test by which a claim could be shown to be an instance of it or shown not to be, and so nothing for the accusation to be true or false about. It is just another rhetorical tool, and one that both sides use, to shut down opposing opinions without challenging them in open debate — which is precisely the function an empty term is best suited to perform.

Context

Political correctness has no fixed meaning. It is a 'catch-all' phrase used almost entirely at the discretion of the user.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Just because it doesn't have a fixed meaning doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If society is nothing more than a group of intersecting oppressors and victims, then political correctness exists in the human interaction that takes place at these intersections. To say political correctness doesn't exist is to fail to see the way our language contains subtle a deep-rooted prejudices that perpetuate oppression and marginalisation. In this sense, political correctness is not just there to dismiss opponents ideas out of hand, it is there to perform a social justice function and create a more balanced society.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Political correctness does exist.