A Muslim group in Florida has recently started buying billboards that say “Hey, ISIS, you suck!” to emphasize the difference between regular Muslims and radical ones.

However much one may agree with that sentiment, it makes me uneasy. Not because of the religious part, but because of the growing use of “you suck” and “that sucks” as public, casual conversation.

“You suck” started as a anti-homosexual slur. It was used against men to imply that they gladly engaged in oral sex with other men, which was seen as unmanly and somehow wrong. After dropping the object of the phrase, the thing that was sucked, it came into more general circulation meaning something substandard.

I’ve never liked it, and I will not use it. But I hope that others who care about the meaning of words will avoid it also.