By political correctness I mean avoiding speaking of subjects which may offend some members of your society. In theory this is of course a good thing, but in practice it need to be used extremely cautiously.
Though we don’t like to acknowledge it, political correctness is a form of peer group censorship. All forms of censorship, regardless of their intentions, are prone to abuse. When you use political correctness to shame someone from expressing a point of view which you find offensive, you have lost an opportunity to counter a bad argument with a good argument. That person then feels that their views (regardless of their merit) have been suppressed, and they tend to cling to them in sullen silence. As I am sure you know, some conservative spokespeople have made a career by exploiting this situation.
Would it not have been better to just let have their say, counter them calmly with good arguments and then wave goodbye?
I’m sorry about taking so long to respond, I have cerebral palsy and I spilt a cup of coffee on my specialized keyboard. I’m using a regular keyboard for the moment and it takes much longer to use (plus I didn’t get to drink my coffee).
