Society is divided indeed.

The misdirection of language in subtle ways, I believe, has had an impact in furthering some of what you pointed out. Tolerance, for example, does not mean you embrace something. Whether people acknowledge the importance of being precise in their words or not, it makes having a simple discussion difficult. Turn the heat up from "simple discussion" to "critical dialogue" and the whole matter is doomed.

At the bottom level, if we are to engage in anything at all, all participants must know the "rules" of engagement. In the case of language, we can't all have particularized definitions (especially inappropriate and arbitrary ones) of the same word. We're speaking different languages at that point.

I could go on, but I think I'll stick with my seemingly obscure point for now.