American Punk and the Rhetoric of “Political Correctness”

ABSTRACT In the Trump era, conservative and alt-right commentators have framed punk rock subculture as a right-wing phenomenon, emphasizing punk’s individualism and “politically incorrect” rebellion as its defining characteristics. Taking a cultural studies approach, this article examines the rhetoric of so-called “political correctness” in contemporary American discourses surrounding the intersection of punk and politics. Its primary argument is that asserting an anti-PC stance disguises an underlying conservative agenda or reinscribes dominant narratives and that punk’s lack of a stable or inherent meaning (the “floating” nature of its signification, as Dick Hebdige described it) leaves it open to such rhetorical uses.