Two things recently brought the subject matter to mind.
1. This editorial cartoon, while it makes a good point about the severity of racism being sugar-coated in schools, implies lower-level prejudice doesn't count as racism, which flies in the face of the current definition of racism, if not the original one. (For some reason the original definition is hard to track down, when it's the only one that should matter.)
2. Likewise with the latest episode-finale Bill Maher monologue, he lists several words he notices some aspects have claimed to be entitled to redefine, along with the specifics thereof. The pictures don't add that much, so you will get the gist of it even if you listen to it while doing other things.
(Just so I'm clear I'm not agreeing with Bill Maher just because he's Bill Maher; I certainly disagree with his point about obesity, in light of the fact that the 78% statistic he cites doesn't distinguish who became overweight from meat and dairy from who just ate too much healthy fat like avocado; but I agree with him because I think he's otherwise right on this subject more generally.)
. . .
By what standard, if any, do we get to "redefine" a word we didn't invent? If tomorrow the vast majority of people (or perhaps just an especially-loud vocal minority of them) claimed teakettle meant toaster, or that shopping bag meant faucet, would that make it so? Why should the onus be on the rest of us to come up with new words to describe something that previously had a word already set aside to refer to it? Why shouldn't the onus be on those wishing for a word to describe whatever they have in mind to come up with their own?
If there is any hypocrisy on this on my part, it's in believing Christianity cannot be defined at all, on account of the contradictions in the Bible, yet having no qualm using the word anyway as a semi-convenient shorthand to describe those who refer to themselves as Christian, but that's more out of force of habit than anything else, and is something I have no qualm considering a flaw about myself. By rights I should be taking more initiative in forcing myself to use the more accurate phrase. But I still think my point speaks for itself.
