[23iofj]

> Nothing existential about it at all. It's an actual threat to Facebook's business model.

"Existential threat" means a threat to the very existence of a thing, so a thing that is an "existential threat" is a very big actual threat. I think maybe you're confusing "Existential" with "Hypothetical"?

[reaperducer]

"Existential threat" means an implied, or perceived threat.

Politicians started using that phrase en masse about a year ago, and the internet has latched onto it and now misuses it all the time.

[ogre_codes]

"I do not think that word means what you think it means"

"Existential threat" means something so devastating it threatens the subjects very existence.

It's meant that for as long as the phrase has been in use.

[kstrauser]

Merriam-Webster says (ref: https://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/existential...)

> an existential threat is a threat to the existence of something.

[23iofj]

> ...and the internet has latched onto it and now misuses it all the time.

I can't decide if this comment is very clever ironic satire or... not ;-)

> Politicians started using that phrase en masse about a year ago

"Existential threat" has been in wide-spread use for a really long time. The first time I heard the phrase used was probably some time in the late 90s. And that's more a function of my age than of how long the term has been used. The cliche is at least half a century old and has been used by politicians for at least decades.

For example, the phrase was commonly used in anti-proliferation and denuclearization advocacy during the last quarter of the 20th century, when nuclear weapons were characterized as an "existential threat" to humanity. This use persists today; see, for example, https://www.start.umd.edu/publication/nuclear-weapons-and-ex...

But the term isn't particularly partisan or limited to extinction-level threats. it's also been used throughout modern history by right-wing populists to refer to one group or another being an "existential threat to our way of life". See for example https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44498438

The point is, the phrase has been used for a long time, always with the same meaning, and its use hasn't been particularly partisan as far as I can ever remember. Both sides use the phrase for various things. But they all definitely mean the same thing -- a threat to the existence of something (humanity, dominant cultural norms, the country, etc.). Not a "perceived" threat.

I'm genuinely and sincerely curious where you got the idea that "Existential threat means an implied, or perceived threat" rather than "a threat to the existence of a thing". The former has never been anywhere close to the dominant accepted meaning. Possibly you heard a politician or pundit use the term in a sarcastic way and misunderstood their sarcasm as literal? Or you heard someone use the phrase in a hyperbolic way?

Can you share one or more sources where people are using the phrase in the way you describe?

[jandrese]

Please do not let this become a repeat of the "literally now means figuratively" situation...