[Roger Slater]

Jayne, I agree with you that people are sometimes offended by silly things. But that's not the sort of political correctness that is a political issue in the presidential campaign. No one is really arguing over whether the word "niggardly" is okay. These sorts of examples are pulled out to denigrate (sorry) the idea of political correctness in order to suggest that it's also merely political correctness to want to fight discrimination or champion diversity in culture, race, sexual orientation, religion, etc. When "political correctness" is used as a pejorative term to refer to people who oppose shutting down mosques, it's usually a substitute for actual argument. People who cannot defend their cruel or hateful positions often just say, "I hate political correctness," a great applause line among Republicans but not a real argument. It's a term that, at least in the US, has become an integral part of the vocabulary of demagogues. And it's a rhetorical device to mask hate speech. Perhaps it's not like that where you live, but that's what it's like in the US. Merely consider the fact that several of the leading Republican candidates, including Donald Trump most conspicuously, constantly deride "political correctness," but none of the Democrats do.

Some of the examples you gave are unfamiliar to me, by the way. I've never heard anyone here object to blackboard if the board is black. As far as Spotted Dick is concerned (tee hee!), Dick Cheney never called himself Richard and I don't recall any liberals objecting to the connotation. I don't think "Chair" is a question of PC, though. At any rate, this is not the political correctness that the Republicans are running on. It's a much uglier thing in the campaign.

Donald Trump often says things like this, which is a quote: "I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. I’ve been challenged by so many people and I don’t, frankly, have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time, either."

If political correctness were merely the silly insistence on not using words like "blackboard" or "spotted dick," I doubt that Trump would stand up and say that it is "the big problem this country has." And I doubt that he would have so many followers cheering him on, as if all their anger and attempts to "take back the country" were just an effort to let people use the word "niggardly" in its traditional sense.