Words

There are little north of 171K words in the English language (in common use). Around 150K in Spanish. Around 135K in French. Around 200K in Russian. Those of us saying please don’t ever use THAT term are saying that about, what, 6 or so words? You can have all the other words!

Come up with a new thing to call your friend/enemy/nemesis, instead of using words with a history of harm and that are used used to divest a person of their humanity, their own personhood. Find something else. Something that isn’t old, tired, completely predictable, and horrible.

Authors invent subcultures and often a language to go with them (see A Clock Work Orange). Make up your own subculture and a language to go with it. But, do please, stop being horrible. You don’t need those 6 words. Not using them will not harm you and it will make other people’s lives better.

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