Before I say this, I want it known that I am upset by senseless violence particularly towards women and children as well as taunting to people who are physically smaller and therefore unwilling to taunt back for fear of violence or unable to effectively taunt back for fear of additional ridicule.
That said.
The biggest issue for all of us is that we all draw the line of what's reasonable in a different place. Some of us don't like kids swearing or people swearing in front of kids. Some of us don't like the use of sexist remarks at all, whereas some of us might think sexist remarks are ok if use as a joke in male company. There's a million examples of things that we get subjected to that may or may not invoke feelings of hurt, anger, embarrassment, disgust and it's different for all of us.
By there not being an easy way to draw a line of reasonability, we are forced to draw the line to match the values of the most easily offended people in each instance. This is not representative of mainstream society, but the most easily offended wins the argument every time, because they draw the line and they are taking the high road.
The resentment from society who, as a whole, would collectively draw the PC line a little lower to allow for some levity and the odd faux pas, is simply, "Why does someone who doesn't represent the values of middle society get to decide what's PC and what's not PC? Who made them the arbitrator of PC? The answer, they did and no one's able to effectively argue against their position.
So what do we do? The only way to combat PC is to either
- manage the court of public opinion (what Cadds did by his conditional apology, which of course contains, "if I offended anyone, I'm sorry". Meaning he's only going to be contrite based on the feelings of others, not whether he thinks what he did is below his own PC line)
- call people out who try to align your moral compass with theirs (probably not possible or advisable for public figures - Trump tries this in a boorish way and is nothing but consistent. It sounds like he doesn't care, but what he's saying most of the time is, "Your opinion on how I should think means about as much to me as my opinion on how you should think means to you. Go away").
I simply decide if I value the person or their opinion and if so, then I usually offer a conditional apology. Yes, I'm sorry I upset someone I respect, but I'm not contrite for what I did or said.
If I dont know or respect them, I simply suggest that I won't be taking life advice from people I don't care about. Go away. (It's usually I little stronger than go away though).
Stopping looking at PC as your problem to solve and start looking at PC as someone's else problem to deal with. If they are offended, that's their issue not yours - unless your reputation is important to you or you care about the person.
