No, not Mac vs PC. Political correctness.
I fully support the concept driving political correctness. We should strive, in general, to not offend people, especially based on race, religion, orientation, handicap, or the like. That's all well and good. Our society has far overstepped the concept, though. We now live in a time where public figures have to watch every word they say, because a single slip results in people screaming for "justice" in the form of firings, boycotts, or similarly overbalanced punishments.
For example, look at Senator Reid, whose use of the word "Negro" set off a storm asking for him to step down as Senate Majority Leader. All Reid is guilty of is using outdated vernacular. Negro was the politically correct term at the beginning of his political career. Rahm Emanuel used the word "retarded" behind closed doors to describe liberals. While I agree with former governor Sarah Palin's campaign against using the word as an insult, that hasn't been accomplished yet. Calling for Emanuel to step down is ridiculous.
This happens all the time. What follows is that only the shock jocks and others who don't care about public opinion have the guts to speak their minds in a blunt or straitforward manner. We are so afraid of offending people with our opinions that we are reticent to share them at all. That is, of course, unless we dehumanize the people who disagree with us. As long as those who disagree are enemies whose opinions are worthless, we don't care what they think. That results in a polarized political atmosphere where each side has little to no respect for the other, unconsciously borne from the supposed necessity of self-protection.
Interestingly, political correctness only blankets a certain portion of the population. It's completely okay to denegrate Johnny Weir as gay because he's flamboyant and feminine, whereas such comments directed at, say, Neil Patrick Harris, would be met with the same backlash we've seen with aforementioned political figures.
Mostly I think we're just really messed up and need to get our priorities straight.
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