Political correctness has become a tool for displaying moral superiority, Lee says
Slogans must be backed by action; being strict with oneself is key to earning trust
President Lee Jae Myung said Monday that the public backlash and fatigue surrounding political correctness stem not from the values it espouses but from the "hypocrisy and double standards" inherent in the attitude of those who champion it. Writing on X, Lee said the problem lies in advocates who "hold up noble values such as morality and justice, yet in practice apply a double standard, being harsh only toward others."
"Words and arguments are lofty, but actions go in the opposite direction — lenient toward one's own flaws and those of one's own camp, yet harsh toward others and the opposing side," Lee said. "As this double behavior repeats itself, people come to see it not as genuine ethics but as a tool for displaying moral superiority."
Lee went on to say that earning trust requires consistency between appearance and substance, between words and deeds, from beginning to end — and being stricter with oneself than with others.
"Hypocrisy and double standards strip any cause a person champions of its persuasive power," Lee said, adding that former President Chun Doo-hwan — "the most unjust of all" — had so thoroughly tainted the words "justice" and "just society" by invoking them that the phrases themselves became corrupted.
Lee added that "as long as the attitude of holding others to standards one cannot meet oneself persists, criticism and cynicism toward political correctness will be hard to avoid."
Lee then said that "particularly in the realm of politics, where the fate of the nation and the lives of the people are at stake, we must be especially alert to a corrupted form of political correctness," adding that restoring public trust in politics requires not moral slogans unsupported by action, but a genuine effort to align appearance with reality.
sunpine@heraldcorp.com
