Genocide and Totalitarianism.

[Huzington]

Do the words "genocide" and "totalitarianism" connote an ethical judgement?

Subquestion: should such terms be used in descriptions of "totalitarian states" and "acts of genocide" when such descriptions purport to be objective and unbiased?

My opinion: even if 'genocide' can be used objectively to describe acts which satisfy the conditions of the word without the implication of any ethical judgment whatever, the mere fact that 'genocide' is almost always used pejoratively, and therefore engenders copious negative associations whenever one hears or reads it, and will therefore tend to affect one's (moral) assessment of any act described as genocidal, justifies its nonuse in purportedly objective accounts of 'genocide'.

 

[gnome]

Do the words "genocide" and "totalitarianism" connote an ethical judgement?

Subquestion: should such terms be used in descriptions of "totalitarian states" and "acts of genocide" when such descriptions purport to be objective and unbiased?

My opinion: even if 'genocide' can be used objectively to describe acts which satisfy the conditions of the word without the implication of any ethical judgment whatever, the mere fact that 'genocide' is almost always used pejoratively, and therefore engenders copious negative associations whenever one hears or reads it, and will therefore tend to affect one's (moral) assessment of any act described as genocidal, justifies its nonuse in purportedly objective accounts of 'genocide'.

I think neither inherently connotes an ethical judgement. The words define specific acts or policies, and if they are generally received badly, it is not because we are biased against the vocabulary, but almost universally against the concepts they denote. Is there a synonym for either term, that would be received more neutrally?