On euphemisms

The nature of our language is essentially bovine. Herd words and phrases reign supreme, sweeping before them all meaning and significance. But if our commitment to euphemistic language is disquieting, society's obsession with nonsensical and often deceptive modifiers is positively frightening. Consider the idea of alternative medicine. The presence of a modifier, by definition, means that the thing being described must be something different from medicine. Put another way, alternative medicine could be anything but medicine. If it were medicine, it wouldn't need the modifier.

A more egregious example is the notion of social justice. The term is often employed to induce guilt among the privileged and justify reparations from the wealthy. But the same logic applies: social justice cannot be justice because if it were, the modifier would be superfluous. In practice there can be no greater good than justice. It is the cornerstone of civilized society, the lofty summit of our collective achievement. The wild proliferation — and serious use — of terms like social justice implies a departure from the current path. And if justice is no longer our goal, what is?