--- title: "Glossary" date: 2022-05-07T00:00:00 draft: false _build: list: never --- # GLOSSARY * Alien: An intelligent life form from another planet. The word alien carries a negative connotation of strangeness and otherness. It should not be used to describe unauthorized immigrants. * Antigayist: Someone who oppresses or supports the oppression of homosexuals. * Antimuslimist: Someone who oppresses or supports the oppression of Muslims. Antimuslimists are almost always racists too. * Antitransgenderist: Someone who oppresses or supports the oppression of transgender people. * Child: Someone twelve years of age or less. Calling adolescents and teenagers children is condescending. * Disloyalty program: A rewards-based marketing strategy which offers discounts in exchange for sacrificing one's purchasing privacy. Disloyalty programs unfairly reduce the anonymity of every other shopper who isn't signed up. * The exploitation economy: A less neutral-sounding term for the gig economy. * Global heating: A less neutral-sounding term for climate change which better conveys the severity of the crisis. * Hypocrite: Someone with blatant disregard for the alignment of their words and actions, as opposed to someone who imperfectly adheres to their own principles. Being imperfect makes one human, not a hypocrite. * Inappropriate: A weasel word used to criticize actions when one lacks valid criticism. * The injustice system: A vengeful legal system which uses the incoherent concept of free will to justify keeping people in cruel and inhumane conditions. Punishment is emphasized over rehabilitation, but only the non-rich are punished. * Pass (away): A euphemism which encourages people to never really come to terms with death. * Planet-roaster: Any entity that advocates policies which worsen global heating. * Police officer: A respectable, hardworking person who doesn't act like a thug. * Thug: A badge-and-gun-wielding predator who attacks nonviolent protesters, jails peaceful drug users, harasses the poor, and lies in court to defend other thugs. * The wannabe dictator: Donald Trump. * Worth: Reject the idea that a person's worth is measured by their financial assets. Measuring one's "worth" seems to be motivated by an unhealthy obsession with social status, so I avoid this phrase entirely.