Wishywashy minds.

[Captain Utopia]

This was less about linguistics and more about increasing frusteration with the inability to communicate meaning due to word parroting and misuse.

Well here's the interesting thing - if people accept your definitions for words, chances are they already think the same way as you do. You're complaining that people who don't think the same way as you do, use different definitions for words.

This isn't a new phenomenon - Godwins Law is coming up for its 20th birthday in a few months time - I don't know if "Nazi" was a widely misused ad hominem before then. I suspect it was, although it is possible it sprang into popular usage with the growth of the internet.

But the point I was trying to make wasn't (at least intentionally) about linguistics, but more about how the increased number of communication channels allows for the ideologies behind those channels to frame the message intentionally by educating its audience to use the new definitions it invents for words.

In an ideological war, like any other, if you can smash your opponents best weapons then its in your interests to do so. Why not call Obama a racist if it weakens the word that might be later used against causes you support?

[Captain Utopia]

don't mean to threadjack, mods feel free to move or delete this post or whatever, but this reminded me how i always seem to notice words coming in and out of fashion.  i can't decide if it's a law of fives thing and the words were always being used, but it seems like you see or hear someone use a word and then you see or hear it being used more and more and then it sort of fades away.

the last word i noticed in this case was "crux"  i think it's already in the fade away stage, but for awhile it was popping up all over the place.

unfortunately i can't remember what other words i've noticed come in and out of fashion (you know, cuz they fade away).

anyhow, just wondering if anyone has had similar experience and if anyone thinks it's a law of fives thing or if there is some merit to it.

Looks like "crux" is making a comeback: http://www.google.com/trends?q=crux

Well no, you can't really answer any questions with Google Trends alone. But I think you're right that the relative popularity of words, at that current time, is taken into account when performing message control.

Perhaps part of the reason why we're seeing so much of it lately is desperation borne from Republicans doing such a terrible job at it?

[Jenne]

I think that's Jenne's subject of choice...?

Um.

Or Khara's.  For some reason I confuse the two.

It's mine.

[Jenne]

And yes, language breathes and expands, it's like an organism, and the interlocutors that use it and the audiences they use it with can shape the meaning and the contexts in which it is found.

[Template]

Well, there's always emoting when you've run out of emphatic words.

Example:
"I found this pie [rend clothes] delicious!"

Also:
"Your premises are in error. [cease kicking]"