Political Correctness

[TheRealJoeFish]

But I don't think "political correctness" is a thing.  I think it's a term that lets us use less nuance and make discourse more divisive and promotes both intellectual dishonesty (by people who say "be politically correct!") and needless bigotry (by people who say "don't be politically correct!"), both of which are bad but easy.

Firstly, PC is certainly a thing -- and abstract thing that see concrete usage. Secondly equating PC with intellectual dishonesty or non-PC with needless bigotry are both equivalences which need support.  Are you really saying that people who prefer blunt speech are automatically bigots?

No, absolutely not.  (edit: this is in response to the question at the end of your post, not the statement at the beginning)

Example: when a school bans The Adventures of Huck Finn because of a word it uses to describe black people, that's intellectually dishonest, or at least lazy, inasmuch as it is easier to just skip a classic than to address the broader issues of generational values changes and confront the bad things we did in the past and why things are different today. ("but that's not political correctness, that's pure revisionism" - says who?)

Example: when someone insists on referring to gay people as "fags" because "political correctness is hurting america," that person's hiding their own bigotry behind an ideological facade. ("but that's not anti-political correctness, that's out-and-out prejudice" - says who?)

I'm really, really pissed at politico-social categorization.  Something is either "politically correct" or "not politically correct."  Someone's either a "conservative" or a "liberal."  An idea is leftist elite moonbattery or republican redneck wingnuttery.  Bull. Shit.

Yeah, political correctness is a thing.  It's a thing because it makes it easier for the media to talk about things in black or white terms. 
It makes it easier for "the bleeding heart liberals" to pretend everyone should be fine everywhere and never have to get offended and if something historical or academic or intellectual offends someone it makes it easier to just push the topic under the rug than to have a discussion about it. 
It makes it easier for "gun lovin' hawkish conservatives" to say something awful and not get called out on it because "oh noes here comes the pc police" and when they do get called out on it it turns them into the victim of the leftist agenda rather than an idiot.