I've just been informed that folks who use Microsoft Word 2000 have been politically corrected — willy-nilly — by the designers of that program. Now, if they look for a synonym for the noun "fool," they get "not found," as if there are no other words that express that word. The official explanation from the company? They tell us that:

Microsoft's approach regarding the spell checker dictionary and thesaurus is to not suggest words that may have offensive uses or provide offensive definitions for any words. The dictionary and spell checker is updated with each release of Office to ensure that the tools reflect current social and cultural environments.
Well, I use the WordPerfect word-processing program, which appears to have a firmer grasp on reality altogether. Looking up the word "fool," I was presented with these 26 other possibilities:

Ass, blockhead, booby, buffoon, chump, clown, cretin, dimwit, dolt, dope, dunce, dupe, idiot, ignoramus, imbecile, jackass, jerk, laughingstock, lunatic, maniac, moron, nincompoop, ninny, nut, oaf, and simpleton.
Mind you, "ass" and "jackass" show up redlined, which indicates that they are not really proper words to use, but at least they're there.....

Shades of "Brave New World"! Yes, Big Brother is with us, and his name is Gates. Bill, that is.