It helps if you think of “political correctness” as a sub-set of politeness.
Quite a lot of people apparently feel like they’ve been aggressively farted on if I say “retarded”. So I don’t. It’s not like I’m being deprived of a vital technical word without which I can never express myself again.
As with farting, there is some company in which it is hilarious to do it. If you’re in that company, fine, let it rip. But once you’ve been told that it is generally regarded as a bit horrid, just save it for the next time you’re in the fresh air, or the loo, or your hilarious farty mate’s car.
If, after letting rip a good, long, reeking trump and laughing at it at (say) your sister’s wedding, someone asks you not to do it and you respond by farting some more to demonstrate that you’re a free man who loves the smell of methane and won’t be cowed by bourgeois notions of social respectability, it’s at least possible you’re being a bit of a dick.
That’s how I rationalise it anyway. I am quite partial to a fairly broad range of retro terms of abuse which are probably best off in the dustbin of language really.
🙂