You might enjoy this exchange from Ask Figaro:
Dear Figaro,
I ran into an acquaintance I hadn’t seen in a few weeks and asked him how he enjoyed the holidays. He got red in the face and growled, “You mean CHRISTMAS? All this politically correct crap is ruining this country.”
Leaving aside that “the holidays” originally meant “holy days,” does “political correctness” represent some figure of speech?
Correctly Yours,
Kairoticact
Dear ‘Rotica,
These days, people get easily offended by how easily offended people get these days. This amuses Figaro greatly. But your choleric acquaintance did indeed use a figure. “Politically correct” constitutes a PARADOX — a pair of conflicting truths. (The term comes from the Greek, meaning “against common belief or opinion.”)
The words “political” and “correct” are like snake oil and water. To enforce a “correct” way of thinking smacks of George Orwell and Stalin. Of course, people who insist on “Christmas” instead of “holidays” are themselves enforcing a correct way of political thinking. Which makes the Christmasists paragons of political correctness.
Figaro, on the other hand, hopes that everyone had a Merry Holiday.
Yrs,
Fig.