oh, I know it's because the authors really believe that changing words will change how people think about what the words refer to. I suppose involuntary shallowness is indistinguishable from hypocrisy.
The problem is that if they use political correctness, they're being shallow which is ok, but if I do, it's hypocritical.
Yes, this should work: next time I want to accuse someone of being a hypocrite (which is bad), I'll assume they're just being shallow (which is better)... as an instance of "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" (known as Hanlon's razor).