Loaded terms in free software

I disagree that the comparison is fair. Yes, words are important, and the FSF has every right to decide how to communicate *their* own message. Just as any software developer/community should be free to chose the words that best expresses the code they write.

What would not be fair is if the FSF decided that the word "alternative" is wrong and instead spread their message by hounding people who use the term, regardless of the context. ie. all the music journalists must stop using "alternative" to describe music because it might be offensive to the free software people. All this does is focus the conversation in the wrong place and causes unnecessary acrimonious debates over something that isn't really going improve anything.

I'm all for police reform, I can get behind affirmative action, and I'm open to any other ideas that might actually improve peoples lives. But a war on language has no hope to do that and is much more likely to alienate people than it is to get them to change their behaivour.

The PC principle that words and ideas need to be silenced, lest they might offend people, is simply wrong and was adeptly disputed in the book "The Coddling of the American Mind" by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.