Stretching the meaning of words or phrases for pejorative effect is a common rhetorical tactic of activists and politicians. See Lee Atwater’s infamous 1981 int

Stretching the meaning of words or phrases for pejorative effect is a common rhetorical tactic of activists and politicians. See Lee Atwater’s infamous 1981 interview where he described how ‘school busing’ became a stand-in for a common 1960s racial slur, or more recently, how the term ‘racist’ has became so diluted it can now be applied to nearly anything.