There is no place for censorship in society.

Well in my society thank god there is. we think total freedom of speech like in the US is just irresponsible. Therefore we have laws to prosecute any racist, antisemitic, homophobic, negationism. (anyone saying for instance jews werent killed in germany during WWII on twitter, facebook you name it goes immediately to a court of law, anyone saying this human race is superior to this one, anyone asking to kill all people from a country , an ethnic group, insults with racism, insult with homophobic theme)  There is no debate on basic universal human rights and so no freedom of speech on these subjects. We have a special police department for the internet and anyone can submit screen capture of anything that is related to the subjects I described above.
Trump for saying that ISIS = all muslims would be immediately prosecuted. Humans are fragile, "Homo homini lupus est" most of them have low IQ, most of them dont read a thing, they are easily manipulated therefore political correctness , yes it's bad but to some point it's diplomacy. see how the germans went nuts yesterday with their hitler..and they were  educated.. some rules are needed to avoid a "new" hitler/ben laden [insert the name of a crazy dictator] to freely express himself.

I hate it. Generally it has been a way for women to control speech, to thereby passively aggressively dominate men

It's not just women who use it.  The entire regressive Left, Social Justice Warriors and Feminists use it, regardless of their gender.

The idea that political correctness is a bad thing is so ridiculous, political correctness is nothing other than society evolving into people being more sensitive and generally better people in terms of how they treat others. This is something you can see in higher education now, the LANGUAGE that people use is directly correlating with the way that they treat other people. As a linguist I can say that the words we use and the way we express themselves have a lasting impact on the way we think and the way we treat other people, so it's important to do that.

"people being more sensitive" to what? "generally better people" to who?

There are people sensitive to clapping. I'm not even kidding. There are people that feel it's just too much for them to have people clap in an audience and to be more sensitive to their needs, they do JAZZ HANDS.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/24/feminist-conference-says-clapping-triggers-anxiety/

And generally better people to who? Many of those preaching for Political Correctness use their own deranged definitions to say that men cannot be raped and instead just "victims of non-consensual sex". Language certainly does affect people when they believe in these strange PC definitions, but that's not a positive thing when it means those people using that language are wanting to write off any sort of harassment or bigotry that doesn't support their world view. To many of those that say that all gay men are inherently sexist and hate women as evidenced by their lack of interest in dicking them, it is "being more sensitive" to ask gay men to recognize that they're inherently misogynistic.

PC language has hindered a lot of discussion such as occurred on Bill Maher's show recently:
Youtube Video

In the clip, Maher talks about how a large minority of Muslims are supporting wretched things like honor killings of rape victims. The horribly politically correct woman constantly tries to ignore this and say "diversity is our strength" (rings a bit of 1984 with that) and whenever anything is brought up about this portion of Muslims supporting horrific things, she ends up implying it's wrong to talk about it because she thinks if you criticize a portion it means criticizing the whole.

The Foundation for individual Rights in Education (FIRE) seems to encounter people using PC culture to censor people as well as demand others agree with them or else.

Youtube Video

I also have to mention, that many of those that preach for PC culture are often quite supportive of harassing others, which I wouldn't think of as being a "better person".

http://www.stopthegrbullies.com/2015/03/19/fionna-free-mans-book-pulled-from-amazon/

There's quite a few members of the PC police that find their delicate sensibilities offended, will go out and engage in campaigns to get books censored. Even Anne Rice has commented on this phenomena. Thing is, they often get upset with things that don't even exist in those books. Likely because of the echo chamber around political correct groups they do not allow for any information that contradicts them to enter the picture. Which is the root problem with political correctness, it creates echo chambers where no 'wrongthink' can enter.

Gay comedian Dave Rubin has a great youtube channel where he interviews guests about this kinda stuff, if anyone is interested. "The Rubin Report"

I've been surprised how many people that push for such crap actually have the gall to suggest things like pedophilia deserve acceptance in society, even when the pedophiles they're wanting to defend have talked of molesting children. Along with crazed fucks often defending Islam even when they're calling for the execution of gays (apparently it's 'Islamophobic' to suggest to them that Islamic societies executing gays is wrong).

A lot of the problems with PC culture seem to stem from people finding pride in being offended, leading them to trying to be offended by anything they see. There was the semi-famous story of Rebecca Watson (?) who at an Atheism conference complained that being asked if she wanted to have coffee in someone's room was akin to rape, and when people laughed at her on twitter she diagnosed herself as having PTSD, and got a soldier in trouble who was insulted by her suggestion of having PTSD due to saying something online (think it was getting him discharged or court marshaled).

There's just too many people that want to play the Oppression Olympics, coming up with new ways to consider themselves harassed or discriminated against (the UN even had people go there in the past couple weeks suggesting it was harassment that people disagree with them online and that it should be censored). Then there's also all the people that want to feel morally superior to others by pandering to those engaging in the Oppression Olympics. They want to justify how people can feel discriminated against (because some guys sat on a train with their legs spread or disagreed with them about something), which leads to some of the most deranged logic imaginable to try and suggest these feelings of 'discrimination' actually made sense.

It should also seems worth repeating that those that push PC culture often have no issue with being assholes, they just to justify it through PC language so they can feel morally superior to those they send death threats to or just plain harass various individuals.

This whole issue boils down to people wanting to have excuses for being assholes and trying to shame people that make them realise they're not always good people. There's always been a huge amount of contempt for people who try and consider others' feelings, try and help those less fortunate or in different circumstances, even people who protect and help animals who have no other defenders...and that's what this dialogue boils down to: people excusing their immature, irresponsible, intolerant behaviour and pointing to 'political correctness', which has been handily savaged and has nothing whatsoever to do with political anything.

The actual things people to, to consider the feelings, circumstances, and social groupings of others, are good and beneficial to society. The whole 'politically correct' debate, however, has far outlived its day. Call a spade a spade. But of course, in politics, we can't do that, and the only people who are open and plain-spoken tend to be morons like Donald Trump, who wouldn't know a spade from a tiffany lamp.

Perhaps I'm just apathetic, or maybe even somewhat nihilistic, but I always find it kind of funny (read: embarrassing and obnoxious) when certain sensitive souls get offended for me whenever anyone makes a ____-ist remark that might be applied to me… because, honestly, I am not phased by such inconsequential things.

I think it's fine and good if you want to try to be politically correct and accommodating yourself. I try to do the same, but it's a bit too easy for westerners (namely young, self-loathing university students) to get carried away with enforcing concepts like "social justice", and it's often only because it makes them feel better about themselves, or because it gives them a scapegoat to blame everything wrong in their lives on except themselves.

I know, I've been there. I was in my early 20's once, too. Then I got a little bit older and learned how to view things objectively, without the ethical blinders of moral absolutes.

Honestly, I'm a very liberal person, but I think all the eggshell-walking, knee-jerk reactionaries out there do more harm than good by alienating everyone around them, and I'm really not interested in having people like them fight my battles for me. I'm a big boy now, thanks. Maybe if I lived in Russia or a predominantly Muslim country where LGBT people are equated with pedophiles and considered genuine criminals, but I live in the west, with a bunch of bored and overfed people who have nothing better to do than stir the pot.

I respect and encourage activism that promotes genuine equality, especially in places where real oppression still exists, but I'm not interested in being associated with the politeness police who have nothing better to do here than piss and moan just so they can feel better about their dull, empty existences in Western Europe and North America.

But, at the same time, it often does discourage someone from saying what they really want to say. Many times people stumble around a discussion trying to figure out how to say something nicely, and the conversation moves on, because the proper words never come and the thought is lost.

In that case, I'd rather hear the non pc words so at least I know the thoughts of the discussion participant, rather than completely missing their stance just because flowery language doesn't come to mind.

I'd rather hear a person say "Poor people should get a job." than not have a person say that, even though they believe it, because they can't find a nicer way to say it.  At least the thought is out there and it can then be discussed.  One can then start discussing what it actually takes to get a job…ie. resume/skills, clothing for an interview, transportation to get to an interview, or if you are really talking basics: an address to use as a home, an ID or driver's license, a social security number and card, a phone number to be reached at, a freshly groomed appearance and smell.

People take for granted all the little things they don't realize that they have in place in their lives to be able to say that "poor people should get a job", when that poor person might not have ANY of that in place. But political correctness can very often keep points of view from being shared, which means the counterpoint and enlightenment as to why something isn't so simple or easy is also not shared