Political correctness strains relationships

The argument

In our culture, strong relationships are crucial to professional and personal success. For strong relationships to form, people must feel allowed to communicate without fear. Our society's emphasis on political correctness stifles such open and honest communication. Currently, people cannot speak without hesitancy, especially when speaking to someone who identifies with a historically disadvantaged group. This hurts both of the conversation's participants. If people do not communicate freely, they will never get to know each other at a deeper level. Both parties will be left without an understanding of each other. In this way, political correctness strains mutual understanding, which leads to less stable relationships. We need to stop emphasizing political correctness, focusing instead on kindness, open-mindedness, respect, and emotional intelligence in communication.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Our culture's emphasis on politically correct speech does not necessarily harm relationships. By helping people avoid unnecessary offense, standards of political correctness can help strengthen relationships.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The hesitancy described is asserted rather than evidenced, and its cause is left open: taking care over how one speaks to someone from a different background is what most people would call ordinary courtesy — which the argument's own closing sentence recommends under other names. [Rejecting P2] Depth in a relationship is not the same as saying whatever comes first to mind, and the counter's point is direct: avoiding needless offence is generally a condition of trust rather than an obstacle to it, so the premise would need evidence that relationships have in fact become less stable.