I would say it's more that they don't know the meaning of decimated. Or they don't know the original meaning of the word. Now when someone writes that a populat

I would say it's more that they don't know the meaning of decimated. Or they don't know the original meaning of the word. Now when someone writes that a population was decimated they probably just mean it was massively reduced. I have also seen articles saying a sports team decimated their opponent, which in that context means the winning team won by a large margin.