The moment a word or phrase begins to rise in public value, a variety of interest groups seek either to destroy its reputation or more often, to co-opt it. In this latter case, they don't necessarily adopt the meaning of the word or phrase. They simply want control of it in order to apply a different meaning that suits their own purposes.

Words thus are not free. They have a value. More than any commercial product they are subject to the violent competition of the emotional, intellectual and political market-place.
—John Ralston Saul, Canadian essayist, novelist, and critic, The Doubter's Companion, 1994