Kulturkampf

[benji]

The norms of political correctness thus set basic ground rules for social life—at least, in politically mixed company. These norms lorded over a motley moral crew. The vocal opponents of PC culture included out-and-out bigots, of course, but also slightly more sophisticated ones who exploited the plausible deniability of abstraction in their appeals for the right to express—and the genuine or performed credulousness of helpful partners like Klein—to help clear social space for the overt stuff.

Notice that only ever do bigots, and their useful idiots, have agency. The "norms" are never constructed and enforced in a way that makes increasingly more and more options "cleared from the social space" or you're one of those bigots seeking to undermine the "basic ground rules for social life."

There's basic human decency and then there's whatever anyone who is not me wants.