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The OP clearly defined how they use barbarian, and I'm fine dealing with idiosyncratic definitions to engage with a post if I wish. It's this justification for why it's necessary to make the idiosyncrasy obvious that I reject.
Certainly possible! But the way in which people use that word does not only reflect the new definition. While it's true you can find inoffensive definitions (DnD 4, to my recollection, lets players be Barbarians as a class, with greater emphasis on the martial prowess part and the spirituality), I do not think my social studies teacher in high school meant it in such a manner when he said the conservative world view was to see the world as divided between the civilized and the barbarians.
Put another way, if the word "barbarian" had come to mean "noble savage", then people who use it as an insult against IRL groups seem more interested in focusing on how ignoble those groups are. My father hates Muslims and I'm fairly certain he does not see anything noble in them when he calls them barbarians.
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