This is an example of “folk etymology,” where some person or group comes up with a logical-sounding supposed origin for a word or phrase and tries to convince others the phrase shouldn’t be used because of its original meaning.
The article references the notion that “rule of thumb” refers to the size stick a man can use to beat his wife. Not. It goes back many centuries and refers, fairly obviously, to a craftsman using his thumb or another body part as a rule(r) to get consistent sizing.
Another example popped up recently where homos claim the term “faggot,” with its dual meaning as a stick of wood and a gay person, originates from the long history of burning gay men to death, as in “throw another faggot on the fire.” Unfortunately for this neat theory, faggot for stick goes back many centuries, while as a term for gay men it didn’t show up till the 20th century, when not many gays were being burned in England or USA. Also homosexuals were seldom burned. We hung ‘em.
Mr. Robinson comes up with a variant of “fake but accurate,” in which he agrees these terms may not actually have these origins, but we should be careful not to use them anyway.
Which sounds pretty niggardly to me.