I think that’s different. It’s nice to not have shitty circumstance be your identity.

I’ve got a friend who was recently homeless. Thinking of him as a “homeless person” isn’t really so helpful.

That said, I think developing a thick skin should be a curricular objective for all people.

Exactly this. I've been homeless twice (once as a kid and once as a young adult). I don't speak about it often, but when I do that is the language I use. There is no need to sugar coat it, and call it something else. People are too coddled and it is likely why so many now have trouble handling any adversity at all.

Am I depressed, or do I have depression?

I don't think either is any more an identity than the other.

And I'd rather people engage with the problem, rather than virtue signaling by using the 'correct' terminology, whatever that is this week.

Well, I can see why a person might prefer to look at their situation as temporary. In your case, would it be the same if you heard someone describe you as “a depressed person?”

Yes.

I'm sure weve all had an issue with a company, and in their communications, theyve been polite and used the 'right' words, but in the end you know they are basically fobbing you off, and refusing to sort the problem. the issue isn't the words, the issue is the attitude.

for me the issues would come in around how they perceive me. you could say that language used is indicative of that, but I disagree, polite words are often used to be very impolite. It takes very little time to assess someones perception, so I really don't see the utility in making people use 'correct' words.

I understand the intention but I don't see what about the word 'depressed' implies permanence. Is a depressed person any more permanently depressed than a depressed button or a depressed stock price?

Yeah, it’s definitely there. Maybe you don’t see it, but ask about. People are very sensitive to their own identity in mental health. Being depressed and being a depressed person is a very different implication!

In case it wasn't clear from my post above, this is me asking.

The "involuntarily unhoused"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#Euphemism_treadmill

And for many, the "voluntarily unhoused".

And also replace "sex" with "horizontal jogging" I guess. Ah the page is full of YPM references...

That still exhibits ableist bias. Off to PC detention for you.

Right, these guys are really going balls to the wall with this insanity.

Which ironically has nothing to do with human anatomy, but nobody bothered doing the research: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/balls_to_the_wall

And "balls-out" refers to locomotive centrifugal governor:

* https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/balls-out

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifugal_governor

When people use long winded euphemistic language directed at me I feel condescended to in direct proportion to the extra syllables used. The fact somebody is spending energy talking in awkward ways only to me reminds me of the fact that I'm in the class of people that are talked euphemistically about. So I've never understood what the point of such language actually was.

Great point. Would it be a stretch to suggest that this language is in reality just another medium for virtue signalling?

What people in the thread said is that they’re more comfortable saying or hearing things phrased a certain way, so that’s why they use that phrasing. Sure you can use language as a means of virtue signalling though.

For me though, I simply see being offbeat phrasing as being stigmatizing in practice, it ends up drawing more attention to whatever was being described.

To fit the style of the OP link I think you should be saying “person who is without housing”