Humans cannot do without categories. To categorises similar things helps us tremendously. Using categories is one of the things children learn early ("No, this is not a cat, this is a dog"). If 'labels' are understood in that sense we cannot do without them.

Most, however, have understood this thread differently, and I agree with them: The number of possible labels to describe one particular person is infinite. To believe that one particular of these many labels is the best to describe him or her is at the very least lazy.

Sometimes, of course, labels are meant not as labels but a insults: You are a racist and a bigot.
I guess even the Mudcatter who has posted that once would would rather not see that as a meaningful label for that person.

One last thought: it often helps to spell out that a certain label may often not be stable in time. "That is a stupid (thoughtless, racist) argument" is much better than "You are a stupid (thoughtless, racist) person". Most of us behave at least sometimes in a way making a not very nice label understandable. None of us (except you, of course, :-)) deserves such a description as a fixed label. Psychologists would say: Speak rather about the state than about the trait of a person.

Wolfgang