Subject: Just when was the term Political Correctness first defined?
Subject: Just when was the term Political Correctness first defined?
What is meant by the modern term referred to as "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS"...The definition is found in 4 telegrams at the Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri.
The following are copies of four telegrams between President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur on the day before the actual signing of the WWII Surrender Agreement in September 1945.
The contents of those four telegrams below are exactly as received at the end of the war - not a word has been added or deleted!
(1)Tokyo, Japan 0800-September 1,1945
To: President Harry S Truman
From: General D A MacArthur
Tomorrow we meet with those yellow-bellied bastards and sign the Surrender Documents, any last minute instructions?
(2)Washington, D C 1300-September 1, 1945
To: D A MacArthur
From: H S TrumanCongratulations, job well done, but you must tone down your obvious dislike of the Japanese when discussing the terms of the surrender with the press, because some of your remarks are fundamentally not politically correct!
(3)Tokyo, Japan 1630-September 1, 1945
To: H S Truman
From: D A MacArthur and C H Nimitz
Wilco Sir, but both Chester and I are somewhat confused, exactly what does the term politically correct mean?
(4)Washington, D C 2120-September 1, 1945
To: D A MacArthur/C H Nimitz
From: H S Truman
Political Correctness is a doctrine, recently fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end!
Now, with special thanks to the Truman Museum and Harry himself, you and I finally have a full understanding of what 'POLITICAL CORRECTNESS' really means…..
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I didn't think the history of that term went back that far.
3 great Americans there
Come on Buzz, some of your seeds are starting to take on the sheen of something a Putin troll farm employee would inject into our system.
This story is as true as that old saw about how prudish Victorians, “dressed” their naked furniture legs with fabric . in order to be P/C for their time. (ie; not true at all)
P/C is a simple concept, "agreed upon standers of politeness in public".
Working out what those standers need to be is always a thing in flux. Today you must order Brazil nut 's and not Niger toes as an example of change brought about by the P/C concept.
H.S.Truman on "Political Correctness"
The Truth: [?]
President Truman did not explain political correctness to General MacArthur in a series of telegraphs.
The chain email claims General MacArthur had never heard of the the term “politically correct” and that President Truman had to explain it to him just before Japan’s World War II surrender in 1945.
But the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum told TruthorFiction.com that those correspondences “do not exist in the library’s holdings.”
The library spokesperson also added that the chain email got Chester Nimitz’s middle initial wrong. It’s Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, not C.H. Nimitz.
The chain email doesn’t make sense when it comes to other historical details as well.
The earliest use of the term “politically correct” came in 1936, according to Merriam-Webster :
“Full Definition of POLITICALLY CORRECT: conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated.”
It seems unlikely that General MacArthur wouldn’t have heard of the term before the Surrender Document with Japan in September of 1945.
And the chain email unfairly paints General MacArthur as a simple military commander who wasn’t familiar with the finer points of diplomacy, but that wasn’t the case. He spent five years rebuilding Japan after the war ended, according to his biography :
“While showing appropriate respect for the Emperor, MacArthur purged the Japanese militarists, throwing some in jail and prosecuting others for war crimes. Working through the Japanese government, he disarmed the country’s military forces, confiscated chemical warfare supplies, and ordered the destruction of tanks, planes, bombs, and other military equipment. He also developed and implemented emergency food and medical assistance programs that Morris estimates saved up to three million lives.
“His most significant and lasting accomplishment during the occupation, however, was political reform. Japan’s new constitution transformed the country into a modern Western-style democracy with “the world’s most liberal guarantees of civil rights.” Sixty-five years later, Japan remains a vibrant, free, democratic society—a living monument to the success of MacArthur’s occupation policies. As Morris writes, “America’s successful exercise in the occupation of a country … was … America’s greatest feat by America’s greatest general.”
For all those reasons, this eRumor is false.
You're right, A.H. I need to reiterate in my mind this adage:
"Never believe what you hear or read, and only half of what you see."
But with the advent of photoshopping, even half of what you see is too generous.
Lol, got that right Buzz.
I told my brother, who emailed that to me, that it was bulshit and he wrote his friend who had sent it to him, and his friend said he knew, but sent it because he thought it was funny. My brother then told me that even he should have known better because he had studied a lot about Truman years ago, and shoiuld have remembered that Truman would never have used the word "shit".