[PaulHoule]

"Illegal alien" is one of the greatest accomplishments of language engineering and was unambiguously successful.

When the left tries this today it results in equal and opposite backlash and has no effect in terms of policy, winning elections, and that sort of stuff, but it certainly can be a motor that keeps online bubbles bubbling.

[ryandv]

I think there is no equivocation or ambiguity here, unless you are me at age 5 asking why aliens have landed in Mexico.

I would hazard that you are underestimating the impact of these rhetorical tactics, but I've not the energy to aggressively litigate and cite this point further.

[PaulHoule]

The effectiveness of these tactics is incredible, it helps people who build an identity around marginalization to always feel marginalized. If they ever won anything it would threaten their whole reason for existence.