Words with unwanted connotations
From WhyNotWiki
Of course, this is rather subjective: whether the connotations are wanted or not probably depends on whom you ask...
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[edit] Set up such that the obvious alternative is made to sound undesirable
This was probably done intentionally by the inventors of these words... but they set it up so if you claimed to be against (whatever the term is) you'd sound pretty silly. Even though double standards are unfairly used so that the full connotations only seem to apply in the case that the inventor intended. [Devious (category)].
[edit] Pro-life / Pro-choice
Who's going to call themselves "anti-life" or "anti-choice"? No one! Both sides picked a name that sounds good to be for but sounds preposterous to be against!
"Oh, so you're not pro-life? So you don't think we should preserve people lives? You don't care if people die or not?"
"Oh, so you're not pro-choice? That must mean you don't think people should have the freedom of choice? You want to take away people's right to choose! Their right to choose how to live their own life, the right to make their own decisions. You think the government should dictate everything that people do and they shouldn't have any choice in their own life!"
Actually, no, in both cases, just because I'm "not pro-choice" or whatever, doesn't mean all/any of those things are true about me. If you think it does, then you've taken things completely out of context.
[edit] Free thought / Free inquiry / Free thinker
They seem to paint the picture that there are only two alternatives: Either you're a free thinker and accept secular humanism as your worldview or you are irrational/closed-minded/deluded. Those seem to be the two alternatives (more or less — they're certainly not going to spell it out for me probably) painted by the Council for Secular Humanism.
Who's going to call themselves an "unfree thinker" or a "closed-minded thinking"? No one.
But I'd like to propose that there's actually a 3rd category you could fit in: But just because you aren't a secular humanist free thinker doesn't preclude the possibility that you are in fact a Christian free thinker!
See Free inquiry (secular humanism)
[edit] General
[edit] Contractor
It seems like that should mean anyone who regularly forms a contract with another person as part of his or her business. And in fact, there are such things is contractor programmers, for instance.
But the overwhelming majority of the time, it seems it refers to those types of people who work in construction, building houses and such.
To make matters worse, I can't think of a more specific, less-ambiguous term for this profession than the term we already use. "Home improvement contractors"? That might work, but it's way to verbose! "Construction contractors"? "Construction workers" (how are they different from them?) ?
Aliases: General words that people use too specifically
Words with unwanted connotations edit (Category edit)
Connotations edit (Category edit)
Unwanted connotations edit (Category edit)
