Whew!

The underlying purpose of "political correctness" is to shut down people we initially disagree with. It is practised by both the left and the right. And it probably has become mainstream thinking. Find an angle to "shame" a certain speaker: end of discussion.

I have been on the end of those dicussions many times. I have "won the debate" in times I can and cannot remember, not even knowing that I was using the same technique that caused me to "keep my mouth shut" in a previous discussion.

In other words, we are not even aware that we are using this technique. We need some training.