Consideration or Separation

When some think about political correctness, they think of certain oppressed and marginalized people trying to get more respect. Others think of Big Brother and the p.c. police trying to stifle their free speech. Personally, I fall somewhere in the middle. I do think those trying to promote political correctness do so out of genuinely good intentions, but I think trying to shield a group of people from jokes, criticism or hurtful words too much separates them and puts them into another class entirely: the untouchables: those people who you must constantly worry about offending for fear of hurting them or breaking them into little pieces. Where did this fear of offending come from? I personally think it began in the late 80's and early 90's with people like Tipper Gore and Janet Reno. Their wars against violent and offensive content on television created such a backlash that now it's considered the "in thing" to constantly flip off the p.c. police in an attempt to say, "Screw you. I can do what I want." As the old expression goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.