Retreat From Reason VI

'In the topsy-turvy politically correct world, truth comes
in two forms: the politically correct, and the factually
correct. The politically correct truth is publicly proclaimed
correct by politicians, celebrities and the BBC even if it is
wrong, while the factually correct truth is publicly con-demned
as wrong even when it is right. Factually correct
truths suffer the disadvantage that they don't have to be
shown to be wrong, merely stated that they are politically
incorrect.
To the politically correct, truth is no defence; to the
politically incorrect, truth is the ultimate defence. To the
politically correct, the 'truth' is no longer 'something that
exists in objective reality' but 'something that supports my
pre-held beliefs'. This selective definition of truth makes
PC arguments almost impossible to refute.
In consequence, the politically correct often believe you
can justify their version of truth with a lie. When the
Mirror published photos purporting to show UK soldiers
torturing Iraqis, the paper's supporters still justified them
after they were proved to be fake on the grounds that they
illustrated a greater truth (which they apparently did, but
no one would be excused for illustrating a politically in-correct
truth with a lie). Michael Moore fabricates facts
with merry abandon in his films, and yet his supporters are
unapologetic on the grounds they represent the (politically
correct) truth.
In contrast, when Robert Kilroy-Silk wrote that Arabs
were 'suicide bombers, limb amputators, women repress-ors',
he wasn't sacked by the BBC because it wasn't true
as a description of the most disturbing features of some
contemporary Arab societies, but because it broke the laws
of PC. The BBC declared that it 'did not share' Kilroy's
views, an implicit acknowledgement that even though as
an institution it is not meant to have its own views, it by
default adopts politically correct institutional beliefs.
Despite the fact that government figures show that Afro-
Caribbeans commit disproportionate numbers of violent
street crimes compared to other ethnic groups, people are
denounced if they say so in public.
Counter arguments to politically correct beliefs are
dismissed without consideration, or simply suppressed.
When the Observer and the BBC denounced the tyranny
of the government for locking up foreign suspected
terrorists without trial in Belmarsh Prison, they rarely
mentioned that the suspects had defied government orders
to leave the country, that despite being in prison they were
free to leave Britain to any country that would take them,
that many had already done so, and that the government
didn't deport them forcibly to their home country because
to do so would be a breach of their human rights under the
Human Rights Act. To admit any of this would undermine
the politically correct's attempt at creating a sense of
outrage by portraying it as a simple case of a powerful
Western government abusing powerless non-Western
citizens. Belmarsh was not Britain's Guantanamo: the
inmates of Guantanamo cannot leave and are outside the
democratic rule of law, a rather important distinction.'


--
From: 'The Retreat From Reason:
Political Correctness and the Corruption of Public Debate in Modern Britain'
by Anthony Browne