Libertarianism

What is with people constantly arguing about the use of words like who's really an anarchist, liberal, what is capitalism, etc.? I have no problem with trying to clarify one's use of certain terms, but there is some kind of theological essentialism to these arguments they seems fundamentally anti-intellectual. For example, left anarchists will say anCaps aren't real anarchists because they don't care about inequality, anCaps will say lefties aren't anarchists because communism requires a collectivist enforcement mechanism, etc.

To my mind this is just a case of different expectations or uses of words, in which case they should just fucking agree to a definition and argue their substantive points. The same goes for capitalism, what do you mean by this word? If by capitalism you mean laissez-faire with a polycentric legal system that defends consent and private property then I am pro capitalist. If you mean the actually existing rigged market system, then I am anti-capitalist.

The same can be said for liberalism: libertarians, you lost this word. You can keep trying to make it mean what you want, but you are almost certainly going to fail in the Anglo world. I personally find 'classical liberalism' to be ahistorical. Many people classically considered liberal were quasi libertarian, many (like Hamilton or the Jacobins) were not. Creating your own idiosyncratic definition about who counts as a liberal shows either ignorance of how broad this movement was or a mendaciousness about history. More appropriate would be to single out who you mean ('Jeffersonian liberal') or to just call yourself a libertarian since that's what you actually mean.

The same goes for the replacement for capitalism among the lefty market anarchists, 'freed markets'. Maybe it's just my unfortunate exposure to the Alliance of the Libertarian Left, but this is cringe to me. If I want to communicate consent based free trade without state intervention I will call it 'laissez-faire', which makes sense etymological and historically, or just call it capitalism with the provisio that I don't mean currently existing market economies with intervention, taxation and welfare.

I also just don't talk to normies. Normies are not going to be converted to libertarianism in significant enough numbers to matter. They might like a vague anti-government ideology or hate taxes, but the project to convince everyone of the NAP just fails for evolutionary psychological and social ideological reasons (not the least of which is Christianity).

Just use a word that at least occasionally has the meaning you intend, clarify if there's confusion, and don't try to discuss legal theory, economics, revisionist history, and contrarian philosophy with stupid people.

I would guess part of the reason is that most advocates don't understand their own religion well enough to make substantial arguments or even define it clearly, but there also seems to be a kind of fetishism about the intellectual property to a certain term.