The Euphemistic Treadmill

Michael Shellenberger discusses the euphemistic treadmill:Screenshot 2026 01 12 at 12.04.10 PM

We stopped calling it psychopathy → now it’s “antisocial personality disorder” (DSM-5 change).

Why? Because the old word became “politically incorrect.”

Same pattern everywhere:
“Retarded” → “developmentally delayed” → new term needed soon
“Addict” → “person with substance use disorder”
“Mentally ill” → “person with mental health challenges”

It’s not about kindness.
It’s about control.
The people pushing these changes don’t actually care about the feelings of those they claim to protect — they care about gaining power in the conversation.

Share

Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

Leave a Reply