Why would "landlord" be considered a slur?

My guess: "lord" is male, thus offensive.

It's not a slur, it's just distinguishing people between those that own property and those that don't. As such, it's offensive to large swathes of disadvantaged people.

I can't even begin to follow this line of thought. Is 'billionaire' offensive because it distinguishes those who own billions of dollars versus those who don't? How, by your logic, is 'property owner' not offensive?

> billionaire

I think you meant 'person of means'?

"People who own property" and "people who don't own property" are very real and in many cases important groups to discuss. If the fact that I'm a property owner (not a landlord though) offends someone who isn't, well... tough. The correct response would be to tell these people to stop being so soft and getting offended over absolutely nothing.

Please, explain your thinking in more detail.

I object to "articles" that are essentially just popular tweets puffed up. Don't think that is good journalism and don't think it needs much more detail.

I mean, I'm confused why you think the vice authors live in a world where landlord is a slur. It's not. It's a commonly used term and a small number of progressive individuals have manipulated the media and their followers into thinking it's terrible. But it isn't. Hence, my request as to why you think the Vice authors "wanted to use a slur", since it isn't.

Cause I have worked in NYC media and know that Vice writers use "landlord" as an insult?

The impetus for this piece was someone wrote a tweet that got very popular implying Google is somehow trying to cover for "landlords" by calling them "property owners". Vice writers are upset about that and would prefer to use "landlord" cause in their culture it has a negative connotation.

An insult and a slur are extremely different things.

Feels like this is an entirely unrelated topic, but they aren't extremely different:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slur

1a : an insulting or disparaging remark or innuendo

And to the point, in NYC media circles, it is nearly the equivalent of an actual slur which is why I called it that. Just one writers want to use as opposed to one they think it is inappropriate to use.

Who, exactly, is it supposed to be "nearly" an actual slur against?

Because I'm sure that actual landlords don't have a problem being referred to as landlords, so you must be referring to some other group.