How do some people make it day to day being as terribly politically incorrect as they are?

I’m not talking about “PC” hooey like not being able to say “Merry Christmas” for fear of offending someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas (don’t even get me started on THAT)...

I have a driver here at my job who was having a conversation with our boss and casually described someone as “Oriental”. Which reminded me about something that happened to an female acquaintance who happened to be Asian in high school over a decade ago, where a teacher said to her, “Aren’t you Oriental? Aren’t Oriental people supposed to be good at math?” to which she replied “Ma’am, “oriental” is a rug. I am Asian. Aren’t teachers supposed to be smart?”

How in the hell do people with that kind of ignorance about what is and is not appropriate (nevermind accurate) make it through every day? That teacher had her ass verbally handed to her that day, and I’m willing to bet it was a long time before she made that mistake again, if ever… and maybe she actually learned something that day.

But how can anyone live in this day and age and not know these seemingly obvious things? That Indians aren’t Arabs, and that Asian people aren’t Oriental, etc? I’m sure there are a ton of examples I’m missing but you get the gist.