Freedom of speech vs Respecting other people's feelings

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I don't think people should be killed for anything they have said, and they should never be imprisoned for "hurt feelings". Inciting hatred should be a very high bar. Obviously serious fraud, spilling state secrets, etc. are good grounds for imprisoning someone for speech, but probably outside the remit of the question.

In terms of "would I rather tell the truth and offend someone, or bite my tongue to be nice?" - that's too black and white. Neither is universally more important to me than the other. I probably come down more on the side of "blunt truth" than the average person, but at the same time, to give an example, if I see e.g. a really visually unappealing person, I don't say "gosh, you're ugly!" even if it is my true opinion, because that would just be cruel. Obviously that's an extreme example, but with more mundane examples you've got to take each situation on its own merits. I don't give false compliments because I think that undermines your credibility, but I also don't offer "the harsh truth" unless I think it is important.

The best way is being liberal.

If someone expresses a controversial belief or opinion, it's not cool to say nasty insults to them and calling them names just because you don't agree with it, but everyone should have the right to say how they feel too, like "I'm glad that works for you but I don't really think it's a good idea myself and I certainly wouldn't do it". Then if they ask why, give reasons. Usually there's a reason behind a negative opinion. If there isn't a reason behind a negative opinion and they just want to judge or mock you, then that's not valid.

It's like if people shudder when I talk about my pet rats, I don't take offense. A lot of people are afraid of rats, for some it's because they're not educated enough. Not everyone has to like rats, and people are free to say their opinions. Some people don't come round to our place any more because they don't like my rats. That's fair enough. Not everyone thinks the same way as I do.
But I do find it rude and upsetting when people say bad things about my rats, like saying I should kill them and all that. There is no need to say that, they are my pets and I love them.

There is a difference but I think a lot of Aspies fail to understand where abouts the line is drawn between the two.

One more thing I was going to mention, which might explain why me and most people I know get frustrated with political correctness.
My work colleagues were actually having a conversation about this the other day. One of them posted a cute photo of his 2-year-old on Facebook with chocolate smeared all over her face. But his photo got taken down by Facebook, saying that his photo was racially offensive, and he got a ban for two weeks. Then another colleague said that her teenage daughter was being bullied on Facebook, people she both knew and didn't know were writing really nasty comments on her profile picture, saying she looked ugly and "retarded", all because she had some zits on her face. She got severely hurt and had to take a week off school with severe depression and she now suffers self-esteem issues. But Facebook never took those comments down and the bullies never got banned.
So political correctness seems to be more important than actual personal insults and bullying.
And this isn't just a one-off occurrence, I see it happen all the time on the internet.
I don't quite know what was so racist about a toddler with chocolate all over her face but I'm assuming it's offensive to black people because of the old-fashioned stereotype thing they used in cartoons of white characters being black or something.

I think that is why many people roll their eyes at political correctness. It's not that we're disrespectful, it's the fuss caused by 21st century cancel culture that makes people want to turn a blind eye to it. I wish people here would get it.

I must admit, WP is good for dealing with political incorrectness AND personal attacks. But Facebook only panics about political incorrectness, never mind about people who are being publicly cyberbullied.

If anybody believes a picture of a toddler with chocolate all over his/her face is “racist,” I would believe that “somebody” is just “looking for offense in every nook and cranny.”

This is a manifestation of “wokism” in extreme.

Most people actually have common sense.

I still think political correctness with race is becoming way too focused (and it's becoming like that with gender now too). Like nearly every old Disney classic is racist. But the strange thing is that in a lot of family movies I've watched I've noticed there's often a snooty British butler who also happens to be an evil villain. That's never called out as racist against British people. But what if they always made the evil villain an African butler or a Japanese butler or something?

Also almost every episode of The Simpsons where they travel to another country has some sort of racist controversy - unless it's in England or Australia or Canada. They can stereotype and mock all they want and nobody cares. But in the episodes where they go to countries like Africa, Brazil and India, it's offensive, unless you take out any stereotypes and just have those countries look like America. But every country has their own culture and tradition, so not all stereotypes should be offensive.

I fail to understand the double standards. Why does racism only seem one-sided? Why can't every race be treated equally?

I've had a situation with a person who would accuse me of hurting their feelings by doing "x". But I know I didn't do "x".

Then they accuse me of invalidation when I say I didn't do what I didn't do.

I can't win. I can't win.