What would a Europe without political correctness look like?

So you think PC is just a term for being polite?

Politeness is simple to define, it's being nice to people, treating them pleasantly and respectfully. Political Correctness is harder to define, but it is easier done with examples.

It is PC to say that there are too many white people in certain jobs and places, but that's hardly polite.
It is equally impolite to be rude to a black person as a white person, yet the former is usually more politically incorrect (unless the white person trumps the black person in the game of PC top trumps, e.g. being a disabled transgender).

Political Correctness spans a very wide spectrum, from completely reasonable requests to be addressed in a pleasant manner, to fairly unreasonable accusations of prejudice, because we make a split second assumption about sex, race, sexuality, nationality, religion, disability, education, or just about anything else.

You might even say that it is Politically Correct to deny the existence of Political Correctness.

I'm interested to hear your opinions, and arguments supporting them

Well, we have places (mostly 'equality' conferences tbf) that say 'no white men', isn't that pretty similar?

E.g.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/white-men-barred-from-equality-conference-2pxg8wsgv

I'm interested to hear your opinions, and arguments supporting them

Most people who complain about 'political correctness' just want to be openly bigoted without being judged. It's not a problem. There is still a rigorous and open exchange of ideas in Europe and the developed world. Real censorship and the effective abolition of opposing views can be found in China, to a lesser extent Russia and in parts of the less developed world.

[video="youtube;99s19HBs-6A"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99s19HBs-6A[/video]

People should be free to be as bigoted as they like without (legal) repercussions. But this isn't the case in many European nations. Say something unfavorable about Muslims or immigrants on social media, and you might have the authorities at your door. Deny the Holocaust, and you could potentially face arrest.

Even if it seems downright stupid or despicable, people should still have the right to say these things. The US has a better model when it comes to free speech and political censorship. But Europe still has one foot in the 19th century with these authoritarian attitudes.

So you think PC is just a term for being polite?

It is PC to say that there are not enough non-white people (or equivalently, too many whites) in certain jobs and places, but that's hardly polite.
It is equally impolite to be rude to a black person as a white person, yet the former is usually more politically incorrect (unless the white person trumps the black person in the game of PC top trumps, e.g. being a disabled transgender).
It is polite to hold a door open for a lady, but we're creeping towards this act becoming seen as an act of oppression against women ("You think women can't open doors themselves? You evil white male!" and thus not PC.

Manners might compel you to refrain from speaking a particular opinion, but PC is now against facts. If facts are deemed to be non-PC, then PC is a form of censorship.

Political Correctness is the act of tailoring speech to focus more on not offending than conveying anything of substance, and taking offense to the use of certain words without regards to the context.

PC is related to the 'Social Realism' of the USSR, except instead of sending political dissenters to the gulags, they are ostracised by calling them 'bigots', 'fascists', 'islamophobes', etc., and through these means much political discussion can be stifled.

Certainly worse censorship exists in communist China and backwards Russia. However, the existence of a worse system doesn't justify the existence of our system.

I don't think PC is a term for very much at all. I think it's a phrase used by some people to shut other people up because they can't construct an argument. In the same way that some people call others 'racist' to shut down a debate on immigration. "Oh, well you would say that because you're racist/politically correct"

I don't think saying there are too many people of any race in a certain job would be very 'politically correct'. It also wouldn't be 'politically correct' for anyone to insult anyone.

The fact that you can say that shows how farcical it is. However I'm not and never did deny that political correctness exists. In the same way I wouldn't deny that racism exists. I said that political correctness, unlike racism of course, isn't a problem.

Freedom is valuable for the results it produces, it is not intrinsically valuable. I have no problem with holocaust denial being illegal in Germany (it isn't here in Britain).