Yes, it's the difficulty in communicating with "normal people" that makes this one of my pet-peeves. If you want to start a commune that is totally isolated from all other outside contact, you can invent any language you want (and will end up doing so by the nature of being isolated and having your language evolve in different directions from the outside population).

But communicating with the greater population, and communicating with partners who come from the greater population causes more difficulty than necessary when "reclaiming" words. There are enough difficulties with communication as it is without redefining pre-existing words.

I, actually, grew up with this abbreviated definition of "selfish" too, and it has caused all kinds of difficulties in communicating with partners when I labeled myself as "selfish" and argued that being "selfish" was not a bad thing when what I was *trying* to say was that I intend to take care of my own needs and that our relationship would benefit if we were each responsible for getting our own needs met, particularly if we were assisting each other in this effort.