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This is an article I wrote for the University of Michigan newspaper  back in 2002.  The essay discusses the fact that in polemical arguments certain discrediting words (focusing here on terrorism and anti-Semitism) have two characteristics.  First, they tend to have different meanings to different people and, second, those with a position will often try to define them in such a way as to strengthen their own position and weaken those of their critics. 

These are mostly reflections upon my sabbatical trip to South Africa during the time of apartheid, and how my support for a change in the South African political situation made me a terrorist, by definition. 

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