Tonge and Suicide Bombers: The Real Political Correctness posted by Richard Seymour

I've endured the sweat-faced, flared-nosed whining of rightists on the issue of "political correctness" long enough. I have never been enamoured of earnest leftists dispensing bromides about multiculturalism and tolerance (usually they turn out to be wholly-owned subsidiaries of Capitalism clinging to some vestiges of liberal credibility). The whole discourse misses the point about race, class and sexuality. Of course we have to fight racism, naturally there is a surfeit of sexist attitudes and institutional discrimination against women to deal with, and yes, homophobic presumptions and attitudes abound.

These aren't peripheral issues, nor are they displacement activities away from the "real" issues of class. But they are treated as such all too often by liberals anxious to avoid blaspheming against the Holy Profit. If we can no longer talk about the substance of social justice, we are left with canards about cultural tolerance and respect, terms rendered meaningless once set in Indie typeface amid a droning few column inches of boredom, while the Business section extols the virtues of the free market.

Nevertheless, there are even more insidious denkverbotens in operation than the obligation to say "vertically challenged" instead of "short".

Jenny Tonge MP has been asked to step down as a Liberal Democrat MP for her remarks that "I might be a suicide bomber" and that she "understood" how some people could come to be suicide bombers given the desperate conditions of Palestinians. I don't want to waste a great deal of time on Jenny, since I don't particularly care for her politics or her party, but let's observe the reaction. Charles Kennedy said:

"I have asked Dr Jenny Tonge to stand down as the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for children. Her recent remarks about suicide bombers are completely unacceptable. They are not compatible with Liberal Democrat party policies and principles. There can be no justification, under any circumstances for taking innocent lives through terrorism."

Really, Charles? How about taking innocent lives through dropping bombs? You haven't always been anti-war, and I recall your ham-faced support for the destruction of lives in Afghanistan and Yugoslavia.

In fact, there is not a single mainstream politician, journalist, intellectual who doesn't believe that political violence is permissible under some circumstances. Israel's ambassador Zvi Shtauber has the cheek to slap his flippers together and applaud this disgusting attack on someone for perfectly insipid remarks, while himself doing the PR for Israeli mass murder. Louise Ellman MP, who does a similar job as a member of the Labour friends of Israel group, similarly applauded.

The real political correctness comes from the Right, circumscribing the most elementary truths in the name of - well, it so turns out - liberal values.