This is a sign of the times where the human imbalanced ego is offended by just about everything. There are people who are pushing the norms, and this is creating new norms that crush old ideologies. The people of the elderly generation are dying slowly and so will their beliefs. All due respect to them, and old ideas that are not embraced by next of kin are dying off.
A belief is nothing more than a single idea. Government is an idea. Religion is a set of ideas and rules. A good litmus test is to ask your self if an idea is empowering or disempowering. Every ten years or so the human ego becomes more and more fragile.
Hyper angry, and hyper sensitive is coming in... The levels of anxiety and depression are rising in all parts of the world. People need to remove "the need" to be offended. Taking things personal all the time ;because, everything we do is based off of our highest value, and if it is not in line with pushing their "own agenda" it becomes threatening. It is all really quite simple. Anytime something does not match our own values we will get upset with it.
We look for similarities and differences with people and their relations, in that no two people will have the exact same values, but there will always be certain similarities and differences that can potentially act as unifying force or POLAR OPPOSITE. So, offended birds of a feather will fight and complain together... These values are perceived values, and often what we perceive as missing in our life. If people feel they are missing "decency" in their life according to their own values or ideas/rules they will complain and fight. This is clearly obvious, yet not talked about often. If they feel the world lacks decency they will push and shove for it to fill that personal rule based void. They will push because it matches their values.
As Aristotle said, your perceived emptiness drives your fulfillment. Your void drives your value. Yet a lot of social idealisms cloud the clarity of what is truly driving people. Food for thought. The overall view of PC is that is based on what we value the most. Hedonistic ideas are more "flashy" and "rule breaking" and it is what fuels our society now and is valued more unfortunately. Can we remain objective and still respect the values of others even if is not in alignment with our own? A good question... I believe we can.
I know that i can respect others opinions even when they run contrary to my own but i have seen how many others struggle with the concept. People have never liked what is different. How many wars have been fought over the simple fact that they were different to the opposite side. What i cant respect is people expecting me to have the exact opinion as them and getting annoyed if i don't.
What i have seen lately in big debates is if you are not on the popular side of the vote then your opinion is wrong and you should be ashamed of it. We have had some conversational referendums in the country lately and there has been a fair amount of this behavior. Abortion and gay marriage were two of the big ones.
If you were against the marriage due to religious reasons then you were wrong and shouldn't be allowed a say. If you were a man against abortion it wasn't your body so why should you be allowed a vote. There was so much of this that it was hard to take a lot of the time. It was hard for people to have an opinion on anything without being shouted down. This is the same vein as political correctness as you can't say this or that anymore as it's wrong and it offends people. They don't realize that it doesn't matter if they are offended as i don't care.
If people were less worried about being offended about everything and just enjoyed life a bit more then we would see a lot less stress and depression. People get so worried over little things that it's no wonder that everybody is getting so anxious. My policy is it it doesn't directly effect me i'm not going to get worried about it. I have no interest in the opinions of people that i don't care about or respect. I will only listen to those of people who have extensive knowledge or whose input i already value. My friends and family, people who are important to me. I can respect others opinions they just hold little interest to me.