"Trade" chat...????

I may be a few months behind here, but that's just how Battlegroup Ruin is. What the hell is up with trade chat? It really used to be about trade. "wtb"..."wts"....and so on. It seems it started with people lfg or lfm for dailies. I remember in the beginning others would tell those lfg to use the lfg channel. But slowly it became the norm. Now that has changed trade chat to "whatever is on my mind" chat. I have silenced trade chat on all my toons. It's worse than Barren's chat! I am amazed on a daily basis how stupid, racist, and ignorant (and I realize some are trolls...some) some people are. Did this shift occur on other servers as well? It would be my assumption that trends occur on all servers generally, but I'm not sure. Does trade chat drive you crazy? Have you silenced it?