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Good article, but why is it the "thugs" always win? There's your disgrace . . .
"What matters today is no longer what the word actually means, or even what the speaker meant when he used it (his "intent"). What matters is how somebody else might "construe" the word. But if actual, standard, accepted dictionary meaning is not a legitimate justification for one's word choice -- if other people not knowing the meaning of a word is to be regarded as a different but legitimate "construal" of the word's meaning, such that any word means whatever the hearer construes it to mean -- then literally anything you say is offensive if anyone says it is offensive.
This is the new, progressive Tower of Babel that public education has (knowingly) helped to create. Hence my claim that this particular case is a perfect microcosm of our modern educational disaster.""