I've long pondered the imprecision of language - no two people have exactly overlapping mental definitions of the same words or phrases, resulting in much miscommunication and needless conflict whenever the mismatch is of any consequence.

I'm coming around to a yet-more cynical view that the fundamental imprecision of language renders accurate communication and exchange of ideas utterly impossible, especially in those contexts where accuracy is most consequential.

Outside the Left, modern use of "capitalism" merely denotes an economic system characterized by markets and secure property rights*.... not social, political, and economic control by the rentier class.

*"Property rights" turns out to be yet another example of a term where definitions used across differing philosophies hold no relation whatsoever to one another. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

Also helpful context for such questions as, "Why does x seem to get used as shorthand for 'everything I personally dislike about the world,' rather than hold a specific meaning?"

In the case of x = "capitalism" the first use of the word was by socialist philosophers in the mid 1800s as a catch-all for "everything we dislike about mercantilism, the exploitative colonialism and empire mercantilism birthed, the rentier class, and industrialization." And that definition persists among the Left.