Words that Have Meaning

Thinking and communication lesson for today: defining the term "mutually exclusive."
I'm doing this as a public service, because lots of people seem to either not know it exists or severely misapprehend what it means.  Mutually exclusive means that two things necessarily preclude each other, they cannot overlap.  In a venn diagram mutually exclusive things are represented by two entirely separate spheres.  It is an old rhetorical trick to pretend that two things are mutually exclusive when they are not: for instance not everyone who wants to defend the confederate flag is a racist, the proof of that is that there have been black people who defend it.  However, a lot of people who proudly display the battle flag are racist, and in fact, the KKK and various other movements whose sole purpose was the oppression and intimidation of non-white people have rather enthusiastically used the flag as a symbol, therefore, despite the fact that it might be seen in another light, it's dominant message is racist.  There is a large enough overlap to make the argument that being racist and displaying the flag are mutually exclusive categories.
Example two: courage.  Caitlyn Jenner is courageous for doing what she has done in the public eye.  So are firefighters, soldiers and police.  Courage of one sort does not preclude courage of another sort.  The fact that something, which many people still understand very poorly (gender reassignment), can require courage does not somehow diminish the courage it takes to run into a gunfight or a fire to save someone's life.  While many would like to make these two things antithetical, they are not.
Example three: Abortion versus women's rights.  This is one of the single most divisive subjects of the past 50 years, and it has often been presented in tragically over-simplified rhetoric.  The fact of the matter is that choice and life are not mutually exclusive.  The lives of the unborn and the lives of their mothers cannot be declared mutually exclusive no matter how many thought gymnastics you want to do.  As a matter of fact educating and supporting women in reproductive choice is the absolute best way to reduce the number of abortions performed for non-health reasons.  I'm all for choice, and I'm also really against killing babies, and I am always looking for that wonderful place where those two things overlap.
Are there things that are mutually exclusive in the news?  Sure:
Donald Trump and sanity/good hair.
Hilary Clinton and being likeable.
Fox News and actual journalism.
Advertising and honesty.
You get the idea.