Pass it on
To name a thing exactly is to kill the cloud of vagueness it was living in. And that vagueness was comfortable. Precision feels like aggression until you realize the fog was what was doing the harm.
Vagueness is not neutral. It is protective. When a concept is vague, it can mean whatever the speaker needs it to mean in the moment, and retreat into a different meaning when challenged. Vagueness is the camouflage of ideas that cannot survive in clear light. The person who says "I just want everyone to be happy" has not said anything; but they have protected themselves from having to specify whose happiness, at whose expense, measured by what standard, and whether happiness is even the right goal.
The Cost of Vagueness
The damage vagueness does is not immediately visible, which is why it is permitted to continue. A vague diagnosis allows a disease to progress untreated. A vague apology allows the offender to feel absolved without the offended feeling heard. A vague theology allows a congregation to believe contradictory things simultaneously, mistaking confusion for mystery and incoherence for depth. Precision is violent because it forces a choice. It makes you say what you mean, which means you have to know what you mean, which means you have to do the work of thinking.
The prophets were precise. "You have sold yourselves to do evil" is not a vague suggestion. "You have turned justice into poison" is not an open-ended invitation to explore your feelings. The prophetic tradition does not traffic in ambiguity because ambiguity cannot convict, cannot heal, cannot call anyone to repentance. It can only maintain the status quo. And the status quo, in every age, is what the powerful prefer. Precision is violence against the status quo. That is why the prophets were killed.