Politically Correct

During World War I (the “Big One” according to my grandfather) there was “shell shock.” The expression needed no explanation, we all got it (the concept, not the affliction). During World War II (the “Big One” according to my father) there was the more politically correct “battle fatigue.” The expression needed a little explanation, afflicted soldiers, it turned out, were more than just tired. During the Vietnam War (actually the “Vietnam Conflict,” a “political action” to be politically correct); there was the most politically correct, “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.” The expression evidently needs a lot of explanation, hundreds of papers and dozens of books have been written on the affliction. I still don’t really understand it; I think it’s similar to shell shock.

There are many other terms I don’t really understand, or find a bit ridiculous, or both. When I was a child some people were short, or fat, or lazy, or crazy, or poor, or homeless, or bald. Today they are just “challenged,” vertically, gravitationally, motivationally, cognitively, monetarily, or residentially. Or in my case, follically (also monetarily, but that’s another story).

I fondly remember when, if you had a job, you were a someone, not a something “specialist.” You were a teacher, or a gardener, or a mailman, or a waiter, or a plumber or a garbage collector. Now you are a “specialist” in education, or flora, or correspondence delivery, or sustenance delivery, or sanitation, or sanitation (sometimes clarity must be sacrificed for correctness). I remember when bad guys were just someone bad. They were robbers and muggers, or perverts and pedophiles, or murderers. Now they are “resource allocation specialists,” or “prepubescent individual exploitation specialists,” or “termination specialists” (not to be confused with exterminators, who murder household pests. Okay there’s a little overlap there). Of course there are also "specialists," physicians who concentrate on a particular field of tax shelter.

When did hookers become “sexual purveyors”; dirty old men become “sexually focused, chronologically advanced males”; rednecks become “rustically inclined individuals”; or cats become “feline associates” (dogs have masters, cats have associates)? When did cheating become “creative collaboration”; criticism become “creative assessment” (actually better); failure become “untraditional success”; ignorant become “factually unencumbered”; sleepy become “under alert” and ugly become “under attractive”?

Finally, when exactly did “black” (more politically correct, I assume, than Negro) become “African American”? And when did “white” (more politically correct, I assume, than Caucasian) become “melanin-impoverished member of the mutant albino genetic-recessive global minority”?