Alexander Nekrassov, a London-based investigative journalist and broadcaster joins the programme to discuss this topic. Alexander’s first point is that we are living in a neoliberal society now in the West, where a lot of things have changed dramatically over the last 100 years.
“What we have seen now is that western governments have basically become obsessed with political correctness, because it is a very handy political tool which gives them a sort of appeal to the masses, it makes the government look cool in the eyes of the young, and yet, it doesn’t demand any delivery. We had a master of political correctness in Tony Blair, and he promised the world. He didn’t deliver on anything, but he had such a huge following because all of his offers to people, all of his slogans, were very catchy and basically sounded good.”
Political correctness is now not just the realm of politicians, it is moving out to students union groups, women’s groups and others, suggested John Harrison. Alexander answered: “Political correctness is very contagious, because it is a simplified version of life. For the young, it’s an easier route, because it gives you the answers without supplying them. All rock music is politically correct. It was presented as revolutionary and rebellious, but I can tell you, I have interviewed a lot of those rock bands and top of the range rock artists. After a few beers, and a few vodkas, they would tell me things, that would make me realise that these people have a very simplified version of life. Once popular music becomes politically correct, obviously the young are the first to feel it. You would struggle to find a single rock song (now) that has any real controversy in it. …If you look at art, television, practically everything, there is a politically correct message everywhere. That is why comedy and satire has basically vanished in the West.”
“Now we have very bland comedy and satire in the UK. This year’s Edinburgh Fringe was one of the worst, I am told. It has become just an exercise in political correctness. …But it is not just Britain. American comedy was edgier than in Europe, but now, again, we see over the past 15 years, that humour and comedy in America have become very very bland, very biased towards certain politically correct causes, and you can even notice during this election campaign, which is a bizarre campaign to be honest — when both candidates are not really desirable. Trump is being trashed and probably that makes sense, but Hillary also is a natural to be mocked and ridiculed as well, and this is not happening because she is the politically correct candidate. The problem is, as soon as you start abiding by political correctness your humour becomes propaganda…”
The biggest political (in)correct target area is of course Russia. “The problem with Russophobia, is that the Cold War never went away. If the Cold War ended, why is NATO still there?,” Alexander commented.
