Is political correctness good for the left?

It’s true: It would be ad hominem to dismiss Koch’s argument about tax policy or regulation on the basis of his identity. Except the item does not do so. It invokes Koch’s enormous social privilege in response to Koch’s claim to be a persecuted figure. Surely citing Koch’s privilege is a relevant response to an argument by Koch about his own victimhood. But the right’s indiscriminate complaints about p.c. have hardened liberal skepticism against any such claim, however justified.

Conservatives fail to understand political correctness because they find the whole left half of the ideological spectrum too alien to dissect with any precision, and they have no interest in distinguishing the near left from the far left. Just the opposite, in fact. But since conservatives do have a real interest in talking about p.c., both when it is real and when it isn’t, they have lamentably influenced how liberals themselves understand the issue.

A second source of confusion is that the social media landscape has changed dramatically in a way that transcends ideology altogether. There is a long-standing and frequently demonstrated sociological principle called “the law of group polarization.” It holds that like-minded people grouped together tend to converge not on the center of their shared beliefs but upon increasingly extreme versions. More confident voices in the room will drown out less confident ones, and individuals will one-up each other to assume leadership roles. A jury leaning toward awarding punitive damages to a plaintiff will wind up agreeing on a much larger settlement than its members originally contemplated. A group of voters harboring suspicions of a possible conspiracy will end up deeply convinced.