Use Your Words

 In recent years I have heard "Use Your Words" spoken from a number of parents to their younger children to get them to verbally express their emotions and thoughts rather than act out.  I have found that to be a wise action and one I hope that carries on into adulthood.

Using “one’s words” should also require that they use them correctly.  But what I find in our society is an alteration of words to fit a group or even a person’s ideology or perception.

One such example is the word TOXIC.  It is, by definition, a very derogatory word that when applied to a person, should imply grievous malicious harm of one person to another. Using the Oxford dictionary:
Noun – poisonous
Adjective - very harmful or unpleasant in a malicious, pervasive or insidious way.

But lately I have heard it applied to anyone who simply doesn’t agree with another person’s beliefs or perspectives.  I have seen it applied to people for minor issues, and used as a weapon to impugn a person’s character and often in a public forum.  

Similarly, the word WOKE has undergone a transformation from its true definition into a political weapon that depending upon one’s political view can be very derogatory.  Once again using the Oxford Dictionary:
Verb – past tense of WAKE
Adjective - alert to and concerned about social injustice and discrimination.

The list for word transformations like this is becoming large and unfortunately – in most cases – modified to be weapons in a verbal arsenal and is used regardless of political ideology of the user.

??? What happens when a word has so many meanings that the word neither explains a viewpoint nor a means of clarification, but requires the reader or listener to interpret the intent of the user?
??? How are we to effectively communicate with one another if the words we use are subject to interpretation by both the user and listener?   
??? What happens when words are no longer used as methods of communicating ideas and perceptions but as sly and derogatory weapons?

What happens is confusion, incivility and bitterness.
What happens is the end of vigorous debate that evolves instead into character assignation.

I hear parents telling their children to “Use Your Words”.  Perhaps we all need to do that but do it better so that Freedom of Speech isn’t an excuse for Freedom to Insult.