When I was young, a long time ago, the term "politically correct" wasn't in use, except as the recorded reason Stalin gave when he sent people to be executed or imprisoned, namely that they were "politically incorrect." So I'm dubious about equating PC and empathy.
My recollection is that the first instances where I saw the term "politically correct" widely used, it was unironic and self-applied, in singles ads. This was in Seattle in the late 80s.
The issue with PC-culture is that it goes way, way beyond treating people fairly - I've never seen the ironic usage of political correctness applied to situation where it just required people to simply be treated fairly, the term is used when there's something ridiculous done to protect the appearance of treating people fairly or to prevent the risk that someone might get offended because of some interpretation (which has nothing to do with treating them fairly).
e.g. ESPN pulling veteran announcer Robert Lee off a University of Virginia football game because his name is too close to Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general is an example of political correctness in action, and that has nothing to do with treating people fairly (certainly the announcer wasn't treated fairly in this through no fault of his own), but to prevent the risk that someone might get offended;
Censoring Huckleberry Finn (for having the n-word in it, despite being a great anti-racist novel of the time) done at some institutions was another example of political correctness - again, there's nothing in the act about treating people fairly, it's simply a fight against "taboo" words or thought, and that is pretty Stalinist in some aspects.
> ESPN pulling veteran announcer Robert Lee off a University of Virginia football game because his name is too close to Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general is an example of political correctness in action, and that has nothing to do with treating people fairly (certainly the announcer wasn't treated fairly in this through no fault of his own), but to prevent the risk that someone might get offended;
Pretty sure that the announcer himself asked to be moved to another game.
There seem to be two different phenomena that are both called PC - they might be glibly described as preoccupied with victims and preoccupied with persecutors. If you're not a member of a group associated with victimhood, it's a good bet you've only ever interacted with the latter, but the former are actually motivated primarily by empathy.
