I Am Not Okay With The Assault On Clear Communication

The thing is, I don't think it is an assault on debate per se. It is more of a, we want certain things and the fact that it harms clear communication does not matter.

Well, I am here to say it does matter. The term "homophobic" is a great example: It is a term that on the surface is used to stand in for anti-gay bigotry. And even if that is all it ever was, is still pretty bad. Bigotry and intolerance are moral failures not forms of mental illness! But of course, it has gone much, much further than that. It has become a way of calling whoever is against the latest thing--Don't ask don't tell, civil unions, gay marriage, trans-gender rights--a bigot. It is a weapon which stands in the way of making useful distinctions. To my way of thinking, anyone who uses the term unironically, is telegraphing that they are a simpleton and it is a waste of time debating them. Or, they are cynically using language as a cudgel rather than having to engage in the work of using reason to change minds.

There are lots of others:

Illegal Alien. A simple term, which means exactly what it says. We can't have that! It makes too clear, the distinction between legal aliens, like tourists, foreign students, legal resident aliens, etc. And people who came here without such permissions. The thing is, the replacement phrases are inexact mush. Undocumented Immigrant. The first word is wrong in a couple of ways. It assumes that they could have been documented and possibly will be and brushes-off the fact that they are in violation of the law. And second, maybe a lot of them are wanna-be immigrants but surely not all of them plan on staying for ever. Illegal alien makes no such assumptions--you are here illegally, we neither know nor care what your plans are

African American: Semi-Okay, but it does lead to hijinks when referring to say a black German or to a white person who immigrated from Africa to the US, etc. Otherwise, it is much like saying Italian-American. The thing is that most people don't use that kind of term once they are pretty far removed from the immigration. Both of my grandparents on my father's side,came from Italy. I sometimes say I'm half Italian, never Italian-American. Black Americans have been here significantly longer.

The okay hand-sign: I have to put my foot down. The okay sign meaning white power was a hoax--you can look it up. Now they are going to take away, what? One of the two or three hand signs that are not vulgar?

Added: And don't even get me started with how my kids (and presumably their coevals) use the word "literally". Suffice it to say, they use it in place of "figuratively". I acknowledge that this has become common, but reject its use on the grounds that there is no good substitute for "literally" which has the original meaning.