You are so right. It's very hard to counter because we can't define it back to reasonable grounds. 'They' are defining based on the emotion of fear and 'we' define things as what they are.
It is hard to get someone to accept a definition for something that is based on simple respect for the unvarnished truth of the object when that person has no interest or affection for it. Strong emotions are easily stirred and leave an impression that lasts even though it's bereft of any knowledge of the subject. How do we fight it? Keep plugging I guess.
Mankind seems unwilling to learn from history or logic and demands of itself repeated lessons in the severity of defying common sense. Could it be that the theory of evolution is more of an insult to apes than it is to men?