Hate Speech

I wonder if this tendency to characterise people as 'haters' was brought about by the increasing divisiveness of American politics. It is a little disturbing that any kind of opposition or criticism toward a product can be summed up as 'hating on it'. Rather than be a hater, why not be an adversary, an opponent, a critic, a skeptic, a detractor, a gadfly, an enemy, or an antagonist? Instead of 'hating' why not dislike, distrust, oppose, criticise, be skeptical of, or consider flawed? Or if you want to be extreme why not slander, defame, denigrate, or calumniate?

So if I take a balanced view and consider that there are good things about the new Apple Maps, for example, but on the whole think there was a laughable lack of quality control -- that makes me a 'hater'.

Words are the functions of speech -- the API of natural language. Differentiation of meaning matters. Using crudely simplified language is like using a crudely simplified API in your programme; it restricts the scope of your expression and what you can create.

If we insist on 'beautiful' APIs when building our software, why not go further and reach for the right word when it comes to criticising software?