The whole point of political correctness is that there are a set of opinions that are unpopular enough that it's OK to inflict social isolation (or sometimes wo

The whole point of political correctness is that there are a set of opinions that are unpopular enough that it's OK to inflict social isolation (or sometimes worse) on those who express them. Even if those opinions are really horrible opinions, political correctness is still bad, because social isolation just makes the problem worse. Sure, you can't engage every crazy idea with a detailed rebuttal. But it's much more effective to befriend or relate to the person on other points, develop mutual respect, and through osmosis you will both understand each other a bit more, and each temper your views. This is how families work. Hopefully you don't (hypothetically) hate your aunt because she occasionally says something that sounds racist. Maybe she has done many wonderful things in her life, and so you just kind of accept it as part of the complexity being human. You don't have to believe the statements are good, but you also don't have to obsess on them to the point of defining her by the statements. The other reason political correctness is bad is because the rules are arbitrary enough, and the punishments are arbitrary enough, that you are never quite sure when they are going to turn against you. For a while it was politically incorrect to say "black", but now that's normal again and "African-American" is a bit more awkward[1]. There was no grand vote or decree to change it... it just changed like a fashion. I honestly don't see how someone who travels at all could be one of the enforcers of political correctness. People in other countries say politically-incorrect (in the American sense) stuff all the time unless they have been trained otherwise. [1] The median black family here has a lot more history in America than the median white family, so it seems a bit insulting to add a qualifier before "American".