Read the transcript – listen to the audio.
One minor quibble – Australia does not have a male macho culture. That’s propaganda.
One very serious quibble – the best Australian movie ever was The Castle.
Important point:
LEHMANN: I think having social norms that frown upon racism and sexism are very important and useful. But when we talk about political correctness, we’re not really talking about social norms. We’re talking about people being punished for asking questions and expressing doubt and expressing uncertainty. The norms are just overactive. They’re hyperactive.
The norms where expressing a racial epithet and using race to insult someone—there should be a taboo against that.
But I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about when we’re talking about political correctness. We’re talking about the tool that’s used to stop people from having independent thought and asking questions about social phenomena and questioning some of the more simplistic narratives that get presented around issues of gender and race.
The norms that prevent people from using race or gender as an insult, I don’t think they’re too tough. I think that they’re perfectly reasonable.
This is an important point – it is perfectly possible to be anti-PC without being rude about it.