Politically Correct?

I'm beginning some of my OU A215 (Creative Writing) exercises. One of them is 'clusters', otherwise known as mindmapping or brainstorming. It occurs to me that the new PC term for brainstorming is 'thought showering' as brainstorming might offend epileptics. I thought it was something that perhaps the epileptic groups or medical professionals wanted to own, and that would be sort of OK.

Sort of OK as long as they realise that as it's in general use elsewhere then tough. Sorry but brainstorming is already in use so you'll either have to put some effort into changing the use, or find another term to use.

But if it's being PC for the sake of it then it just annoys me. After all it's not like the term was invented to be offensive to anyone suffering from this unfortunate infliction. And quite frankly it described what goes on inside my head whenever I have to think in this way. Storms - dark, heavy, lightening flashes of brilliance (if I'm lucky) with loads of wet pathetic stuff needing to find it's way into a drain.

And I've never heard anyone suffering from epilepsy complain or comment about the use of the term. It's the non-suffers who seem to want to tiptoe around insisting that we mustn't cause offense. Well of course it's a lovely thought, never causing offense to anyone. But I would be more offended by people thinking I would be offended by something and acting on my behalf without asking. Let's all assume that people with these kinds of conditions are strong individuals that have learned to live with debilitating illnesses and that a mere example of terminology used in an everyday situation will not cause a moments thought.

This isn't just against this one example. It seems that the 'PC Brigade' must sit around thought showering considering what group they can match a term in use against next. They can bring it to our attention that we have been offending people. They can bring it to the attention of the group that we have been offending them. Thank goodness these people exist.