It often displays some of the characteristics of a living thing. It can die out. It can be killed off by other ideas in a mind. It can evolve over the years. It can grow and develop.
Ideas then can be very organic in their nature even though they seem rather abstract.
They can be likend to things like viruses, most of which can also only exist in a host, can multiply and be passed on from host to host, can evolve and so on. Now the point I want to make is that there is little point in arguing about mere words. Both are saying that the phenomenon is an organic or biological one. Most people will agree that this is a harmful condition and it should be dealt with.