The Term "Normalized" Has Become Normalized

Normalize, means to make something seem normal.  It's been used a lot recently to refer to events - like school shootings and outrageous Trump actions - that once would have been seen as totally unusual and demanding serious discussion and action.  

Here's the fourth definition on Merriam Webster's online dictionary:

4: to allow or encourage (something considered extreme or taboo) to become viewed as normal

The word normalize hasn't been used this way for a long time.  

Someone posited the question, "When and where did the new sense of "normalize" begin?" on English.stackexchange.com  (not exactly sure what that is, but the heading on the page is "English Language Usage" and it's dated 2020.)

One part of the answer was:

Merriam-Webster have “recently” addressed this matter of a very recent shift in focus or meaning in their article The New 'Normalize': Is the meaning of 'normalization' changing?:

"It will sometimes happen that a word suddenly appears everywhere. In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, two such words are currently in the ether: the verb normalize and its related noun, normalization."

This would suggest that Trump's behavior after being first elected was so unprecedented, broke so many norms and taboos, that people began using these terms.  

I think the term itself has been used so much itself, that it reinforces the idea that the once taboo is now normal.  

So what's the alternative?  

Everyone needs to contribute answers to this. I'd suggest that journalists simply have to continue acting shocked and adding statistics to show how terrible something is.  And continue to contrast behaviors to how things were in the past and to how things are in other countries.  

"President Trump continues to add to his presidential lying record, leaving all other presidents in the dust.  Today he said . . .Nixon resigned because Congressional Republicans told him he would be impeached after the recordings he made in the Oval Office proved that he had lied to the American people*."

*"Barry Goldwater thought that Nixon’s lying “was the crux” of his failure. That deceit was intended to obscure the overwhelming evidence that he had abused power and obstructed justice." (Source: LA Times)

The same is true of school shootings.  Journalists have to put them in context (so far beyond other nations; 

Source

"In 2019, gun injury became the leading cause of death among children aged birth to 19 years." etc.)  Journalists have to show the impacts on mothers and fathers, siblings, other students and teachers.  

Saying that "defying the courts has become normalized" merely confirms that the behavior is now within the bounds of normal, acceptable behavior.  

These behaviors are not 'normal'.  They still are taboo, even if the Supreme Court corruptly allows Trump to regularly violate the Constitution.  

Object to the word normalize and encourage people who use it   

1. to see that using the word confirms that the behavior is now acceptable, even if that isn't what they meant to do;
2. to call out the behavior as immoral, illegal, unconstitutional, and castigate those who have the power to stop it, but tolerate it - such as GOP members of Congress and the Supreme Court majority