https://phys.org/news/2018-07-america-middle-words-diversity.html > It involves battles over the dominant meaning of words, and how we use those words to describe our values and construct our policies. For example, on July 19, House Speaker Paul Ryan urged conservatives to engage in a rhetorical battle over what he called the "hijacking" of traditional conservative terms like "Western civilization" by the alt-right. > Ryan asked conservatives to notice that a key term that they take for granted as universally understood had recently become contested. In a 2009 speech Ryan explained that "Western civilization" was "rooted in reason and faith"; it was a tradition that "affirms the high dignity, rights, and obligations of the individual human person." Now Ryan fears that it is being construed to mean "white identity politics," which is more like "racism" and "nationalism."