Words mean things. It's important that we keep definitions of words straight so that when we communicate with each other we can actually understand what other people are saying.
I understand how language changes over time and the English language is changing rapidly because of all the influences on it. Multiple nations and people with different backgrounds speak and they bring their own flavor and flair to words. Marketers adjust the meaning of words and shorten them in order to fit more words in copy and hopefully communicate a feeling more rapidly than the next guy. People try to be cool by saying stuff like "suss" for suspicious and that sort of thing in an effort to confuse parents and adults and have their own little sense of control over what they're communicating.
But words mean things. As I drive around our country I see signs everywhere with the words "speed limit" on them. "Limit" has a very clear definition. It's the point at which you're not supposed to go beyond. And yet we have changed the meaning of that word to where when we see a speed limit sign that says 55 everybody pretty much understands if you're doing 65 or 70 probably won't get charged with breaking the law. So now limit doesn't mean limit anymore.
While that doesn't seem like a big deal, and everybody does it so really doesn't matter, if we all started to interpret the word "stop" to me slow down a little bit look around and make sure there's no police and keep rolling through the intersection more people will die in car accidents. (My Dad would say that stop doesn't mean 'step toe on oedal') But many people already do that so that's a bad example.
"Stimulus" is a word that has a very clear definition. And yet the way it's used today is leading us down a path of financial irresponsibility and enslavement to other countries and people.
"Infrastructure" has a very clear meaning when speaking about a community. Roads, pipes, electric and communication lines, those sorts of things are infrastructure. But when we allow politicians to corrupt the word by saying that sex studies for underage homosexuals is "infrastructure" then we have big big problems.
Keep that in mind the next time you see a speed limit sign. The more you allow little language changes to morph and to let words that have very clear meanings be undermined the less certainty and trust you will have in what people are saying and doing around you. Which will lead us into a low trust society, which is a different subject.
