Out of fairness, though, I can see one eentsy-wheentsy kernel of truth in there, in that language changes take a while to filter from people who take part in social justice discussions to the general public.

Forex, the one and only place I have seen comments about 'oriental' not being proper anymore is here on JF. After seeing those comments, I thought about it and realized that I hadn't seen it used in media for a while, but it never would have occurred to me to consider it an offensive word I shouldn't use. And not because I had any racist feelings towards Asians, just that it had been common when I was growing up and I hadn't been clued in on any attitude shift.