Prior to the 1980s the phrase did not bring with it a negative connotation. It existed for centuries before that across many English-speaking cultures and countries, yet it didn’t take on a negative connotation in the mainstream until this tipping point in the US in the 1980s. Before that it was primarily used only to refer to political orthodoxies and alignment (for example, if someone proposed a policy that were in line with their own political party’s values, that would have been a “politically correct” proposal). So, what happened?

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