Trump, David Foster Wallace, and Political Correctness

I’ve been thinking about how conservatives’ hatred of “political correctness” got used in the recent Republican debates, which led me back to David Foster Wallace’s essay, "Host," on conservative radio host John Zeigler, published in Consider the Lobster in 2006 and re-published this year, with cool new formatting, in the Atlantic. Donald Trump used his disdain for all things PC to justify some seriously hateful, misogynistic things he’s said in the past when he was asked pointedly about them by Megyn Kelly. I won’t rehash the exchange between Trump and Kelly (you can read and/or watch it here), but suffice to say that he let himself off the hook for calling women fat pigs, dogs, slobs, disgusting animals, and all manner of other things, because he “doesn’t have time for political correctness.” It was one of the biggest applause lines of the night.

In “Host,” Foster Wallace is digging into Ziegler’s preoccupation with race and political correctness, and one particular footnote supplies an excellent response to the Trump/Kelly episode. The footnote elaborates on Ziegler’s claim that he is “anything but a racist,” which itself is a response to his being fired from a hosting job “for spelling the N-word on air.” Foster Wallace says,

This is obviously a high-voltage area to get into, but for what it’s worth, John Ziegler does not appear to be a racist as “racist” is generally understood. What he is is more like very, very insensitive – although Mr. Z. himself would despise that description, if only because “insensitive” is now such a PC shibboleth. Actually, though, it is in the very passion of his objection to terms like “insensitive,” “racist,” and “the N-word” that his real problem lies. Like many other post-Limbaugh hosts, John Ziegler seems unable to differentiate between (1) cowardly, hypocritical acquiescence to the tyranny of Political Correctness and (2) judicious, compassionate caution about using words that cause pain to large groups of human beings, especially when there are all sorts of less upsetting words that can be used. Even though there is plenty of stuff for reasonable people to dislike about Political Correctness as a dogma, there is also something creepy about the brutal, self-righteous glee with which Mr. Z. and other conservative hosts defy all PC conventions. If it causes you real pain to hear or see something, and I make it a point to inflict that thing on you merely because I object to your reasons for finding it painful, then there’s something wrong with my sense of proportion, or my recognition of your basic humanity, or both.

I think it’s worth holding on to DFW’s take on these things, especially since the current presidential campaign seems destined to be chock full of brutally stupid moments, some of which will be met with applause.