"...attention is focused on surfaces, on words and metaphors...signs and symbols are accorded more importance than content...the P.C. movement's obsession with language is accompanied by a strange Orwellian willingness to warp the meaning of words by placing them under a high-powered ideological lens." Michiko Kakutani, "The Word Police"
When we focus too much on political correctness, we are taking attention away from the problem and are wasting the energy we could be using elsewhere. It's superfluous pandering to the idea that words hold more weight than action. Worry less, for example, about the term "wife beater" (a man's sleeveless undershirt) and more about men that beat their wives.
Basically, stop worrying about what someone calls something and worry more about how they treat other people. Hate speech is not acceptable. Pissing over terms such as "rule of thumb" (which used to refer to the fact that a man could beat his wife with a stick as long as it was no wider than his thumb...horrible, but how many people actually know this when they use it?) is a waste of energy.
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