I can’t decide if I have the energy to weigh in on this, though I have a lot of feelings on the topic. lol. Fuck it, let’s do it.
The problem with our current “PC culture,” if you will, is that you have people like you or I who wish to encourage kindness and respect of others… and then you have people who want to control what other people say and think and feel entitled to do so because it is necessary to address systemic inequality, and we all tend to get lumped together.
I think that changing language requires education and understanding and time. For crying out loud, it’s 2017 and some people still use the “N” word, so, we also have to be realistic. I care about my words and how they affect others and I don’t like to dehumanize others (including people that most others are happy to dehumanize) but I fear that the current path of social activist groups is potentially harmful to the very people that we are trying to give a mic to. Political correctness often comes off as self-righteous, aggressive, condescending, and policing. And, whether right or wrong, most people don’t like being told what to do (especially what to say or think, which is a good thing, as thoughts and speech should not be restricted by law.) As a result, people become resistant and push back against things that they might otherwise be open to learning or changing on their own over time are less likely to be open to because they feel it’s being shoved down their throat.
So much about this past election has been incredibly eye opening to me as a person living in a swing state and in a swing county. People aren’t nearly as inaccessible or closed minded as a lot of others believe them to be, but they are also people (and calling them fragile or racist or bigots doesn’t really make our perspective more appealing.)