Political debates online often fail because participants use identical words to mean fundamentally different things—functioning as false cognates across ideological languages. The Civic Discourse Project addresses this by providing precise, multi-layered definitions for contested terms.
This project is an ongoing effort to build a practical reference that participants can invoke to establish common ground before debating substance.
Before or during a debate, participants can reference specific definitions by term and column. The columns range from Technical (academic) to Expansive (broadest serious usage), plus Polemical columns showing how each side rhetorically deploys the term.
By declaring which definition you're using, you eliminate semantic confusion and focus on substantive disagreement. You can also generate a personal TCDP profile by checking boxes on the definitions you use, then sharing the link in your bio or posts.