[audience looks around] ‘What just happened?’ ‘There must be some context we’re missing.’

Or, to put it another way, (unprofessional academic linguist here), a word has meanings by what you mean by it, and what the listener understands it to mean.

In a sense, it can mean anything you want it to. In another sense, it can mean anything the listener/reader interprets it as. Most useful though is when you mean the same meaning that the listener understands.

And for “accepted/official meaning”, that’s just a community all agreeing on a meaning. Optionally with a recognised group (e.g. dictionary writer) affirming certain meanings as accepted in the community.

Sounds like both to me. The genuine increase of price to customers due to Trump’s policy, presents an excuse for Walmart to seem good while prices increase, even while their aim is to aggressively maximise profits for themselves.

Like how energy prices in England have skyrocketed with the genuine fallout of the Russian Ukrainian war, but energy companies appear to have taken the opportunity to skim off extra profits for themselves.

Ah, nice to see Lemmy wholeheartedly embracing our friend and source of truth, Walmart.

Tomorrow’s headline: “Amazon says worker conditions will be bad because of Trump”