TRAs and semantic bleaching
For those unfamiliar, semantic bleaching is when the strength of a word becomes diluted due to frequent exaggeration, misuse, or hyperbole. A good example is "literally" being used so often in a figurative sense that its "literal" meaning has been softened, no longer holding the same impact.

I see this happening everywhere, especially with the TQ crowd and I've grown to hate it. I hate it because it's led me to start doubting people at face value. They overuse powerful words to create a false sense of urgency for their cause or to drum up sympathy, and I hate it because of the real-life implications of these words taken less seriously.

When the meaning of "child abuse" has been watered down to also include parents that won't give their children puberty blockers, how are genuine victims of child abuse going to get help when social services are flooded with kids that are "traumatized" because their parents won't call them Lilith?

The meaning of "lesbian" has become "non-man attracted to non-men" (while also implicitly including men in skirts in that definition) and real lesbians can no longer trust any space or community that claims to be lesbian.

"Trigger" no longer means something that can induce a severe PTSD flashback or panic attack, but "thing that makes me mildly uncomfortable"

Their use of "genocide" is perhaps one of the most infuriating. There are real, ongoing genocides happening all over the world. Darfur has been repeating history for several months and almost no major outlets are reporting on it. The Uyghurs are one of many, many ethnic minorities in China that are being cleansed. How narcissistic, how out of touch with reality do you have to be to put yourself on the same level as genocide victims because a law won't let children cut off their breasts?

Semantic bleaching of these powerful words is having a chilling effect on our ability to empathize with other humans. It's gradually making us more cynical, more skeptical when people bring up "abuse" and "trauma" and I hate seeing that cynicism grow within myself; an ugly seed that grows each time I see someone stealing these words to wear like accessories so that they can boast about who has the worst life.

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