United States | News & Politics

"Unhoused" kind of rubs me the wrong way too, mainly because, in my opinion, it's such a blatant (and not exactly genius) manipulation of language to, as you say, "destigmatize" the Other word. The Other word comes with mental images of dirty bums and mental illness and drug addiction and petty criminals and ... whereas "unhoused" people ... well, that sounds like just an ordinary person without a house! Someone w/o a house doesn't necessarily need expensive social supports like health care and food and training/education and [obviously] housing. A much more palatable and low-baggage term, no? Oy.

But I'm easily annoyed at all this kind of re-terming, and it's everywhere. Among the most irritating is "Anthropogenic global warming" becoming "climate change" ... notice how that eliminates all blame from the term, and furthermore no longer indicates which direction temps are moving in. Even worse is that my fellow lefties say "climate change" now w/o a second thought to the origin of the phrase (right-wing propagandists) or the motives behind its creation (corporate profits).