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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3629060" data-attributes="member: 18280">Thank you for making that crystal clear.  I didn't want to assume an answer earlier, as you've already accused me of misquoting you when I wasn't quoting you.  I myself would argue that the criteria which would make X valuable as a descriptive terms would be the same as the criteria which would make Y valuable as a descriptive term, regardless of what X and Y are.  Of course, I think a thing is a descriptive term or not regardless about how one actually feels about it.  I also tend to think that the value of a descriptive term is inherently based upon how well understood that term is.  I certainly wouldn't argue that a descriptive term has no value based on connotations (political, derogatory, or otherwise).  Connotative meanings add value to descriptive terms."Bonehead" may be derogatory, but has value as a descrptive term, for instance, because it is easily understood by almost everyone.  Conversely, a term like "liberal" (which has both political and sometimes derogatory denotation/connotation) has lost some descriptive value not because of these denotations/connotations, but because the widely disparate modern useage has prevented it from being as easily understood by society as a whole.Claiming that you understand what is meant by a term, while at the same time claiming that the term has no descriptive value, is exactly equivilent to claiming that you don't know what huzzuwits are, but you know that you don't like them.  It is a rational contradiction.You say the term has no value as a descriptive term, and could have no value under any criteria.  You then say "That a politically loaded word with negative connotations is a bad phrase to use when describing something seems pretty self evident."  This makes it clear that the criteria for Magic Walmart being a valuable descriptive term, far from being none, is that it somehow loses all "political" and "negative connotations".  In other words, it is not the term you are objecting to per se, it is instead the meaning of the term you are objecting to.  One should not say what "Magic Walmart" or "Pokemount" mean.  And that, my friend, is an attempt to control the content of conversation.  As Gentlegamer said, "It would seem there's a certain Ministry of Truth mindset at work here that would like to do that very thing . . ."RC</blockquote>

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