Have you heard the joke about the Jew, the lesbian and the Indian? You know, the one where everyone gets along, and no-one makes fun of people for their culture/beliefs/genetic makeup? No? Me neither.

It is a funny thing to note that the kind of freedom of speech most staunchly defended is often the kind which might use a person’s skin colour as the butt of the joke, before calling their mum fat and their sister a whore. But it is just a joke, you see. It is not real. If you think somebody means something just because they say it, then you are a silly person. Lighten up! It is only casual racism/sexism/whichever kind of discrimination has taken your interlocutor’s fancy. People are dying! Polar bears are dying! Please find more important things to worry about than feelings.

Political correctness gets a bad rep, all things considered. It is that pesky little ideal which kills the music and turns up the lights during the party so as to be in bed for nine. It laughs (humourlessly) in the face of comedy and hates Jeremy Clarkson (although you can hardly blame it for that one).

But all this hardly seems fair. If you ask me, political correctness has had a pretty rough deal. Whoever invented the term was clearly not its friend. I can just imagine the ‘thought-shower’ process now: “How can we ensure that this never becomes popular?” “Incorporate the word ‘politics’, of course! Everybody hates politics!” Poor political correctness never stood a chance.

Now, before any wiseacres go all clever and Greek on me, yes, I know – the word ‘politics’ really just means ‘civic’ at its roots, and ‘civic correctness’ does not sound half as bad (even if vaguely reminiscent of the kind of car you might drive if you really do care about the aforementioned polar bears). But find me one person for whom ‘politics’ is not inextricably linked with awkward pints, evasive answers and duff promises, and the ouzo is on me. Call someone a ‘politician’, if they are not one, and you are liable to get a smack; if you are ‘politicking’, you are hardly likely to be baking fairy cakes and giving out free chocolates. Much to the dismay of Cameron, Clegg and Miliband (but also, let’s face it, in no small part because of them), the notion of politics leaves a decidedly bitter aftertaste.

And that is what is so wrong with political correctness: it is not the thing itself – it is the name. So I have a radical suggestion: why don’t we change it? Just call it something different. It is, I highly suspect, simply a question of PR, as so many things are: political correctness needs to sack its current PR bod and get in a new one, and I am only too happy to be of assistance. I cannot help but wonder, if we were to start calling political correctness something like ‘moral correctness’, or simply ‘decent human interaction’, whether people might not feel rather more positively towards it – like it was the minimal standard for communication, rather than an optional extra.

If you are struggling to imagine this, allow me to help you out. People would still be funny, but they would bear in mind the feelings of all those they make jokes about, simply because that is the decent thing to do. They would still voice their opinions, but they would do so in a way that was considerate to all those implicated – again, because that is decent. Forgive me, but I do not think this is any kind of blue-sky utopia that I am imagining here – it is simply a world in which people respect other people. I am even going to go out on a limb and suggest that that sounds – I don’t know – nice?

I tend to get a lot of stick for my love of all things PC. I am generally the person wincing, while others are busy laughing up their colons. You probably have one in your friendship group, too. They probably annoy the hell out of you. Or maybe you are that person. I am, somewhat reluctantly, going to pass up this opportunity to assure you that I can be fun too – just watch me alphabetising and you will be in no doubt – but I am going to make one final plea on behalf of Decent Human Interaction (née Political Correctness). It just wants to get to know you. Maybe even be your friend. But only if you want to. It’s decent like that.