NIce summary on the substance of usage arguments

Language usage is and should be a battleground.  Our task is to make the
conflict fruitful.  To do this, we need to understand what precisely is
at issue in any particular dispute.  Does a new locution advance or
retard our power to express our ideas effectively?  Is the issue
primarily one of different aesthetic sensibilities?  Or is our argument
over language rooted in deeper disagreements over who we are and how we
should live?  Once we understand what is really at stake, we may be able
to learn much through arguing about language.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/arguing-about-language/?pagewanted=all