Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

“Political Correctness” – A Threat To Free Speech? Overcoming The Dilemma, Lothar Tschapka

UBT International Conference

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 …