How will this directly affect the person-on-the-street? what negative effects will this cause
I can see the administration of the cahnges might have some small financial effect (although this will be a P*** in the ocean as far as overall military spending is concerned), but, hey, it is 2016 yah know
It affects us by separating us into ever smaller factions. I am part of the human family. The words mankind, mailman, manhole, come from the word mankind which means everyone on earth.
The only people who now can be freely ridiculed are the elderly, both men and women with older white males being at the top of the list.
Forcing people to watch every word they say because far off middle managers make language rules limiting free speech? This doesn't help anyone and does hurt people in the street, at work, in the media, and in day to day interaction.
I would have thought that the changes make things more inclusive, rather than "separating us into ever smaller factions".
"The only people who now can be freely ridiculed are the elderly, both men and women with older white males being at the top of the list"
oh. Who/which group was it that you wanted to be able to ridicule?
I don't really agree with the rest of your post. just the words, 'political correctness', seem to raise people's hackles I think it would be instructive if people stopped thinking of it as 'political correctness' and started thinking of it as 'respect' instead.
"Why can't I refer to the owner of the Taco place as a 'spic' anymore?..... It's 'respect' gone mad" [doesnt quite have the same ring to it, does it?]