YES “Political correctness” (PC) arouses much sound and fury. Believers, agnostics and detractors disagree about what the term means, its mission and its place in a liberal democracy. PC unsettles traditionalists and unnerves the powerful who have wilfully distorted facts, made fake claims, and maligned those of us who believe language can be used as a weapon, that cultures are not static but dynamic, and, most importantly, there is no such thing as absolute freedom of speech.
Everyone has lines that can’t be crossed. Even JS Mill, the high priest of free expression, was careful to register constraints in certain contexts—it was not, for example, acceptable to denounce a corn dealer to a mob that had gathered outside his house, and was ready to explode. There are always degrees of permissiveness, with cultural as well as legal limits that are so familiar we barely notice them. Claims about the inviolability of free expression are humbug.