That's an old and always interesting argument, and I honor you for brining it up. However, the fact that English usage evolves is no excuse for going along with every bit of its evolution without asking yourself if the new usage is an improvement or not. It's our responsibility as writers to sift through the entire language and pick and choose the words and idioms that communicate our ideas well.
In this particular case, although plenty of people use "is a ghetto" to mean "sucks" rather than "is isolated," and although almost everyone uses "sucks" to mean "is poor" rather than "performs fellatio," I personally think that "is a ghetto" is a strong metaphor when used to imply a marginalized, isolated technology and is incredibly weak when used to imply something has fallen into disrepair. It really doesn't add anything insightful.
Which brings me to my personal metric for deciding how well a metaphor fits. Does it add some insight? If "is a ghetto" is synonymous with "sucks," I gain nothing form using it other than passing myself off as a hipster.
But when someone uses "is a ghetto" to describe something with an insular culture, I get an "aha!" moment as I think about the various implications, such as people trying to live their entire lives within the ghetto, or people learning to speak a crazy creole of their programming languages.
I think using "is a ghetto" in the social sense conveys extra insight or meaning, so I personally prefer it.
I will go further. Using it to merely suggest that something sucks is--well--gay.
In this particular case, although plenty of people use "is a ghetto" to mean "sucks" rather than "is isolated," and although almost everyone uses "sucks" to mean "is poor" rather than "performs fellatio," I personally think that "is a ghetto" is a strong metaphor when used to imply a marginalized, isolated technology and is incredibly weak when used to imply something has fallen into disrepair. It really doesn't add anything insightful.
Which brings me to my personal metric for deciding how well a metaphor fits. Does it add some insight? If "is a ghetto" is synonymous with "sucks," I gain nothing form using it other than passing myself off as a hipster.
But when someone uses "is a ghetto" to describe something with an insular culture, I get an "aha!" moment as I think about the various implications, such as people trying to live their entire lives within the ghetto, or people learning to speak a crazy creole of their programming languages.
I think using "is a ghetto" in the social sense conveys extra insight or meaning, so I personally prefer it.
I will go further. Using it to merely suggest that something sucks is--well--gay.