Has political correctness gone too far (especially during the winter season)?

[Mordecai]

I keep forgetting about this, but I felt like posting a thread on this topic. Do you guys think that there is too much political correctness these days?

Not really.

Examples would be Governor Lincoln Chafee (who got a measley 36.1% of the vote despite the fact of who his father is) calling the Christmas tree a 'holiday tree' two years in a row

Lol I remember this. I thought it was goofy but endearing. If he thinks it will help him represent Rhode Islanders better that's his call.

and a federal judge in California not allowing a nativity scene in Santa Monica, CA.

IIRC they also didn't allow other scenes.

Then there are other examples, like the Seattle City Council circulating a memo telling members not to use words like "citizen" and "brown bag" last year

That is going too far.

and how Family Guy actually got cancelled on a few networks.

I think this is more reasonable. It's at the network's discretion as to whether they want to show that kind of stuff and they might not want to be known as a network of vulgarity. That's fine.

Let's not forget about the schools in New Jersey banning Christmas songs.

This is also going too far. As long as the children aren't coerced they should be allowed to sing the songs.

[Mordecai]

How exactly is Family Guy a vulgar show? I know it's considered offensive by some people.

You're kidding right? Don't mistake my description of it as being some kind of denigration (I do watch the show occasionally) but yes because of its vulgarity it's considered offensive by some people and that's why some networks don't want to host it. That's the nature of the networks trying to keep their market open for everyone. It's also part of the cause for secularization / bowdlerization of Christmas in commercial and retail sales, arguably much more so than just political correctness.

The main point is not the legal principle of the act, but rather one's ability not to care. If you're not Christian and you see a little nativity scene in front of the fire house as you're driving through on your way to a "Holiday" bash in a larger city, don't call the ACLU. While you might be right in the general principle of government impartiality towards religion, the fact that you're getting to make a huge ruckus about something like that and let it distract you from drinking bourbon mixed with egg nog while your friends sing holiday songs around the fire wearing awful sweaters is more an indictment of your character than that of the head of the fire precinct.

Let's not pretend though that it's just the atheists and secularists that were bothered by it, the religious were getting jealous when the atheists and secularists started applying for spots to put up displays.