On the Abuse of Legitimate Terms

Abusus non tollit usum and its corollary

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

I’ve been exploring this idea of the Social Myth, particularly the Social Myth of the culture war and how it focuses our attention on appearances and away from the issues themselves. Language—terms, phrases, memes, private lexicons for the tribe—is the center of all conflict. And it changes rapidly.

One group creates a …