Political Correctness

Last week I was watching the Glenn Beck show. He attacked the concept of political correctness. He traced it back to the Soviet Union where if one didn't speak in accordance to the party line they were taken away for re-education or worse. This political correct thing has always struck me as out and out censorship. It is the book burning of our society.
I'm not in favor of intentionally speaking derogatory things about any segment of our population. But to live in fear of offending someone unintentionally just can't be healthy. Have we become so thin skinned that we can be crushed with words. Or is it we have become so greedy for power or money that we are looking for reasons to quickly run for an attoney. This political correctness thing is creating secret monsters. People are bottling up resentments over perceived slights and even prejudices so much so that they are walking around with their guts churning and like a volcano they are ready to erupt. Recently on the news there was two incidence where famous people let loose a tirade of bigoted statements. One is known to have done so while under the influence of alcohol. I don't know if it was so for the other. The news media played these up big time. One would think that there was nothing else of importance happening int the world. I have no doubt that these two incedences are just the tip of the iceberg.
Now to those who believe that they are the injured party how come we have given so much power away. How is it we can be crushed by what some jerk says. Before I have the society for jerks beating down my door let me give you my definition of a jerk. One is behaving like a jerk when they open their mouth before engaging their brain. Unfortunately I have been guilty of such on many occasions. Hey, maybe I could start a chapter of The Jerks of America in my area. We could get T-shirts and hold meetings and even have parades. Lets face it if we come out in the open we would probably make the evening news just about every day. Can you picture it? Jerks on both sides of every social issue clashing in the streets. Throwing rocks and bottles and hitting those of the opposite opinion with our signs. Tell me , would that be called political incorrectness?
Now that I think about it I am wondering if it is the fear of being accused of being politically incorrect that has made cowards of our political leaders. Oh, by the way, who is it that decides what is politically correct?