The political correctness thing doesn’t bother me. Of course it sometimes goes too far in terms of punishment for words, but I like that people might have a little more inhibition or take a little more time to think before they speak. And generally it is garbage (untrue) that you “can’t” say this or that — you can say anything you want, it’s just that there might be an unpleasant consequence for saying it. I believe the consequence for a dumb statement or something inappropriate that slipped out or was poorly worded should be nothing more than a social consequence such as a correction or pointing out that what was said was unkind or offensive. I am generally not big on suspensions or firings unless the statement was flagrantly racist, sexist, etc. That is, of course, a judgment call which I might agree or disagree with.
Are some people more sensitive than others? Of course! There have always been people who are more or less sensitive. People have always had the right to continue to offend people who you think are being oversensitive. Still your choice- no freedom changes there.
I do want to point out 2 things that I think matter in a PC discussion. 1. “PC” is just a social correction (for the most part). If you grew up when I did you probably remember the freeness with which racial, gender, homophobic, ethnic slurs, were used without concern for the feelings of others. For crying out loud, I was alive at a time when it was legal to blatantly discriminate (could legally refuse to serve someone in a restaurant, hotel... had separate facilities for blacks and whites, women were openly paid on women’s scales). Back then, some people expressed being offended, but most of the time people just took it as life in America. “PC” is simply a social correction. And as such, sometimes it appears to go too far. It is a necessary “cost” of societal change— to a society where being considerate matters and whete other perspectives can be accepted even if not always easily understood. It’s a good thing.
2. With all the frustration I hear about PC when incidents like this arise, I can honestly say that my own behavior hasn't been too affected . It’s not that I never think or say things that are edgy or off-color, I do. But I think a little more about what I say now or how I might say things, And I think that’s a good thing and has been to my benefit as a person. Trump’s anti-PC pushback is the antithesis of the direction I’d like to see in America. It certainly isn’t leading us to a path of greatness but rather back toward intolerance and anger directed at those who differ from ourselves. I’ll take the occasional costs of PC gone awry over moving back in that direction.