I’ve been using fetishisation and addiction as characterisation of the roots of PC attachment to accepted modes of thinking. (Frankie Boyle calls it “Weary Rationale”.)
Competition is one of those accepted (PC) modes.
Critical thinking seen as the ability to undermine interlocutors as if they were opponents. After all, the ultimate test of science is falsification and science is good, right? Well no, it may be the ultimate test of science fact, but it’s not the point or purpose of good “rational” endeavours. It’s become PC to value arguing against something – using peerless objective logic – above all else. It’s the “winning” form of rhetoric.
Most recently here, we noted Stephen Fry linking Political Correctness to acceptance of poor rationality, to the point of rejecting “rationalism”.
Today this link to The Conversation piece by Rajani Naidoo “Competition as a fetish: why universities need to escape the trap.”