The thing is, I don’t think that shorthand (along with similar things like “You’re an idiot”) ever stays understood outside of very carefully maintained systems of people working closely together in super high trust situations, even if it starts out understood.
I’d agree. Outside of closely-knit, high-trust situations, I don’t think it’s achievable to have that subtlety of conceptual communication. You can remind (some) people, and you can use more precise terminology where the distinction is both important and likely to succeed. In other cases, maintaining your internal standards of epistemic hygiene is valuable, even when playing status games you don’t like very much.
The thing is, I don’t think that shorthand (along with similar things like “You’re an idiot”) ever stays understood outside of very carefully maintained systems of people working closely together in super high trust situations, even if it starts out understood.
I’d agree. Outside of closely-knit, high-trust situations, I don’t think it’s achievable to have that subtlety of conceptual communication. You can remind (some) people, and you can use more precise terminology where the distinction is both important and likely to succeed. In other cases, maintaining your internal standards of epistemic hygiene is valuable, even when playing status games you don’t like very much.