Well, without even the slightest hint of fairness to the original comment, I use it as a flimsy excuse to vent about political correctness, which is something that has been bothering me of late. If my reaction seems totally disproportionate to the rather mild cause, that is because it is disproportionate. I am here admittedly galloping headlong off-topic.
"The word 'eskimo' comes from the language of the cree (?) indians to describe their neighbors to the north, and may actually be a racial slur. The inhabitants of the Canadian High Arctic call themselves the Inuit (the people). I believe that the Alaskan natives are Aleuts …“
I am aware of that, and I do not care. In fact, I regard with particular hatred attempts to change the language to sooth the imaginary hurt feelings of various mascots of the political Left. Unless you can tell me, off the top of your head and without looking it up, the name in any Eskimo dialect for a Virginian, I suggest your concern for their concern for our names for them is illegitimate, particularly where no English speaker knows the meaning of the insult. (None, that is, but I: it refers to them as eaters of raw fish, a slight against their relative poverty). Besides, what could be more insulting to me that to have the Eskimos refer to themselves as ‘the People’? What does that make me? A non-people?
But it would be immature to the point of insanity for me to pretend I am insulted by the mere existence of a word in their language. Likewise, here. Insult requires intent.
I ask any and all reader please to not make corrections of this type again. They offend me. They deeply offend me.
I had to ban another commenter who 'corrected' my use of the word 'Mohammedan' to refer to the paynim, because he would neither apologize, answer, or shut up about it. He was worried about offending them, but not about offending me: a double standard.
Maybe if I video-taped myself with a kidnapped and innocent civilian journalist, one to whom I’d falsely promised safe conduct, and battered in his skull with a thurible while dressed in miter and alb all the time singing GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO, my tender feelings would be nourished and guarded. Or is it only the deadly enemies of their own culture the death-cult members of the death-culture Left wish to see lauded, aided and abetted? Perhaps Leftist psychology is best understood as that of a cancerous civilization seeking a version of Doctor Kevorkian, and the Jihad serves that purpose now that Stalin is gone.
Let me explain that I regard political correctness as worse than a lie.
A lie is a straightforward attempt to deceive a victim. It almost honest by contrast. Political Correctness is a corrupt attempt to poison thought and speech, and to impose upon the nobility and courtesy of its victims to get them to deceive themselves. A frequent side effect of PC jargon is that it renders rational conversation difficult, indirect, or even impossible.
Innocent and well meaning people are actually fooled by this simple trick. Sad to say, most people think like magicians. They believe in the rule of true names. They think (or rather, they feel) that when they are calling one thing by another name, that the actual nature of reality changes. They put themselves in a position where they can no longer talk about real things. Words are severed from referents.
Worse yet, magicians of this type resist any attempt to define their terms, because their ego and self-esteem are built into their false (often deliberately false) verbal models of the surrounding world. I speak from sad experience: an examination of recent entries on this journal will display the verbal magicians in all their smoggy evasions and self-righteous self-satisfaction.
Every thinker since Confucius and Socrates emphasized that calling things by their right names is the basis not only of logic, but of morality. Attempts to substitute euphemism or misleading expressions for the right names of things are not only deceptive, but illogical. It is both a moral and an intellectual error.
Whether you know it or not (if you are a conspirator, you know it; if you are a useful idiot, a dupe, you do not) by making an innocent suggestion about using a nicer word than Eskimos for Eskimos, you aid the effort of the forces of unreason.
If you successfully substitute the word 'Inuit' for 'Eskimo' on the grounds that 'Eskimo' is an insult, you will have successfully convinced the next generation that all their forefathers who used the word 'Eskimo' deliberately meant and fully intended an insult, or were foolish or negligent enough to utter an insult by accident. That conviction will be false, a lie, and you (in a small way, one more straw on the camel's back) will have helped to perpetrate it.
In the last 50 years, this deception has been successful, wildly successful. The purpose was to erect a wall to sever us from our fathers and grandfathers, so that, rootless, we would be weak and stupid. This has been done.
Example: There are people alive these days, perhaps even the majority, who when reading the Declaration of Independence or the Book of Genesis, think God created males and endowed them with equal rights, but not females. They think when the Jefferson wrote “All Men are Created Equal” that that Jefferson and the Founding Fathers were only objecting to inequalities among Kings, Princes, Barons, Knights, and Farmers, but that the Founders were somehow fine and dandy with rank inequalities between Queens, Princesses, Baronesses, Dames and Farmwives. If King George had been a Queen, no rebellion would have obtained, because all men are created equal obviously means not all women are created equal. So much for the ability of modern victims of PC nonspeak to read and understand the words of the past.
I also hate political correctness because their particular jargon is meant as a marker, a gang sign -- it is like the slang used by cliques in school, who deliberately exclude the non-cool kids by using code words only the cool kids know. But because political correctness presents itself as a type of courtesy, it is used by a larger population than merely radical Leftists, and this seems to swell their numbers, which is a deception of another type.
There are honest men, for example, who use "he/she" "s/he" or "he or she" when, grammatically, "he" is called for. These honest men do not know that they are wearing the uniform and waving the banner of the enemy. They think they are merely being polite and correct.
The leper's bell that rings when these vermin approach is the phrase "but language changes!" It is their rallying cry. They will defend their lies by hiding under the trivial observation that we no longer say "Thee" and "Thou." What they are hiding is their intent to destroy language and integrity and honesty. Language does change. Some changes are natural and neutral. Using the word 'mouse' to refer to an electronic computer pointing device is neutral. Some changes are not neutral: they are attempts to deceive, either deliberately or as a result of a reckless & negligent indifference to the truth. They are lies. Examples could be multiplied endlessly.
• Using the word ‘Sexist’ is a lie, since it implies that recognizing the differences between the sexes (which even an idiot could not overlook) is a bigotry akin to racism. The word conflates two distinct concepts of misogyny (hatred of women) and romance (traditional attitudes towards lovers, wives and mothers).
• The word ‘Homophobia’ is a lie, since it implies that a normal respect for decency is a mental disorder. (Unless you use it to mean pathological fear of being alone, its original meaning). This word is a masterpiece of lying, and we should pause a moment to admire the breathtaking insolence involved. Crazy people dismiss sane people as insane on the grounds that the sane people are not crazy.
• Using the phrase ‘sexual orientation’ to refer to sexual perversion is a lie, because it implies perversion is value-neutral matter of taste rather than a moral decision in the context of an objective standard.
• Using the phrase 'African-American' to refer to a Negro is a lie, as any Canadian African-American can attest. Charlize Theron is an African-American. Vonetta Flowers was announced as being “the first African-American from any country” to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics.
• Pretending the word 'he' does not, in some contexts, refer to both sexes is a lie. Pretending the word 'man' does not, in some contexts refer to human beings of both sexes is a lie.
• Using the word 'gender' when you mean sex is a lie.
• Using the phrase “manmade disasters” to refer to enemy terrorist attacks is a lie. Using the phrase to “Overseas Contingency Operations” to refer to the War on the Islamic Terror Masters is a lie.
• Calling a terrorist a “militant” is a lie. It is also treason, in that it gives aid and comfort to the enemy.
• Calling a Spending Bill an “economic stimulus bill” is a lie. It has neither the ability nor the intent to stimulate anything. It also betrays a risible illiteracy regarding basic economics. If it is a pork-barrel style spending bill, payola to loyal constituencies, this adds insult to the lie.
• Using the word 'fetus' to refer to a baby in the womb, rather than to a stage of that baby’s development, is a lie, and a dehumanizing lie, like Nazis calling Jews ‘undermen’. It also betrays risible illiteracy regarding basic biology.
• Using the word 'rape' to refer to an indeterminate set of sexual batteries is a lie, and a pointless lie, because it is trying to equalize the sexes on the basis of subjective victimhood. It also betrays risible illiteracy regarding basic biology. By mocking the pain of real rape victims and diminishing the crime of real rapists, it becomes a satanic lie.
• Using the phrase ‘undocumented worker’ to refer to aliens illegally trespassing on our sovereign soil is a lie.
• Using the phrase ‘homeless person’ to refer to a bum or a panhandler is a lie.
• Using the phrase ‘B.C.E.’ or ‘C.E.’ to refer to B.C. and A.D. is not only a lie, it is a theft of intellectual property, a betrayal of our common culture, and an insult, made all the more abhorrent by how petty an insult it is. The idea that anyone could honestly be offended or oppressed by the use of the Julian or Gregorian Calendar is not merely a lie, it is a confession that some people are too petty to think straight. (And they go and use the calendar anyway, but just misname it).
• The word ‘Homophobia’ is a lie, since it implies that a normal respect for decency is a mental disorder. (Unless you use it to mean pathological fear of being alone, its original meaning). This word is a masterpiece of lying, and we should pause a moment to admire the breathtaking insolence involved. Crazy people dismiss sane people as insane on the grounds that the sane people are not crazy.
• Using the phrase ‘sexual orientation’ to refer to sexual perversion is a lie, because it implies perversion is value-neutral matter of taste rather than a moral decision in the context of an objective standard.
• Using the phrase 'African-American' to refer to a Negro is a lie, as any Canadian African-American can attest. Charlize Theron is an African-American. Vonetta Flowers was announced as being “the first African-American from any country” to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics.
• Pretending the word 'he' does not, in some contexts, refer to both sexes is a lie. Pretending the word 'man' does not, in some contexts refer to human beings of both sexes is a lie.
• Using the word 'gender' when you mean sex is a lie.
• Using the phrase “manmade disasters” to refer to enemy terrorist attacks is a lie. Using the phrase to “Overseas Contingency Operations” to refer to the War on the Islamic Terror Masters is a lie.
• Calling a terrorist a “militant” is a lie. It is also treason, in that it gives aid and comfort to the enemy.
• Calling a Spending Bill an “economic stimulus bill” is a lie. It has neither the ability nor the intent to stimulate anything. It also betrays a risible illiteracy regarding basic economics. If it is a pork-barrel style spending bill, payola to loyal constituencies, this adds insult to the lie.
• Using the word 'fetus' to refer to a baby in the womb, rather than to a stage of that baby’s development, is a lie, and a dehumanizing lie, like Nazis calling Jews ‘undermen’. It also betrays risible illiteracy regarding basic biology.
• Using the word 'rape' to refer to an indeterminate set of sexual batteries is a lie, and a pointless lie, because it is trying to equalize the sexes on the basis of subjective victimhood. It also betrays risible illiteracy regarding basic biology. By mocking the pain of real rape victims and diminishing the crime of real rapists, it becomes a satanic lie.
• Using the phrase ‘undocumented worker’ to refer to aliens illegally trespassing on our sovereign soil is a lie.
• Using the phrase ‘homeless person’ to refer to a bum or a panhandler is a lie.
• Using the phrase ‘B.C.E.’ or ‘C.E.’ to refer to B.C. and A.D. is not only a lie, it is a theft of intellectual property, a betrayal of our common culture, and an insult, made all the more abhorrent by how petty an insult it is. The idea that anyone could honestly be offended or oppressed by the use of the Julian or Gregorian Calendar is not merely a lie, it is a confession that some people are too petty to think straight. (And they go and use the calendar anyway, but just misname it).
So language changes, does it? Certainly it does. Liars also lie. The servants of the Brave New World also like to hide their lies under the general blanket that these lies are justified by a change in language. It is merely an accident, no doubt, that all the changes favor their political outlook, and lure us to changing our minds to agree with the dogmas favored of the Thought Police.
So language changes, does it? Well, then, if so, I can change it back.
Behold! As if this moment, the word ‘Fuck’ is no longer insulting or demeaning or condescending. Indeed, I decree that henceforth it is a cute word of endearment, like a baby name!
Anyone who interprets the word other than my way is wrong! It is done. Please rewrite the dictionaries at once!
Instead, the word ‘Clint’ shall take its place. Clint Eastwood and President Clinton have thirty days to change their names, or else be arrested on charges of public indecency. You clinting clintheads! Go clint yourself. As you can see, it functions perfectly as a substitute.
I also decree that the words Wog, Wop, Kike, Dago, Mick, Kraut, Hun, Zip and Frog are now terms of endearment, whereas Frell, Frith, Frak, Noy-Jitat, Noob, Klono, Noshabkeming, Slithy, Spork, Spock, Peck, and Pulsepurple-throbhose-o-love are now unacceptable swearwords. Furthermore, the word ‘hair’ is discriminatory and exclusionary to bald people like me, so the word ‘scalplichen’ will be used instead.
Racial slurs for people from Belgium are still being sought: please send your suggestions for consideration to my post office box. ‘Bilbo’, ‘Bludger’, 'Brillig', ‘Walloon’ and ‘Waffle-eater’ are in the lead.
Use them in combination! “By the ears of Frith! It’s a peck with an acorn! I’ll frell my clinting spork of that Walloon right in his slithy scalplichen! “
No doubt you are laughing or shaking your heads in disgust. You think it is arrogant of me to usurp this power to myself, and merely by decree to say what a word means or how it shall be taken?
Well, I must ask: why is it arrogant absurdity for me, but not for them, the political correctoids?
Let us ponder that one for a moment. Is it there greater numbers? Well, so a mob outnumbers me.
Their greater intellect, moral stature, self-anointed ethical highmindedness? In their Alice-In-Wonderland world, moral superiority is conveyed, not when you uphold and promote moral behavior, but when you undermine and discourage it. Note famed Leftwing apologetics for sexual perversion, drug addiction, and socialist slavery. Remember how the feminists closed ranks to protect President Clinton (hereafter known as President Wog) in order to secure the right of powerful married men to betray their wives and exploit their young female underlings. It was explained to me that these highly-moral morally-superior NOW women were betraying their principles and doctrines and followers in order to preserve infanticide, the right to kill innocent babies in the womb. (I do not know if any of you have seen SILENT SCREAM, which is a film of an abortion shown in all its reality, but the film shows the babies face contorted in pain and agony as the scissors and clamps puncture the child and dismember it.)
So does their right to prostitute the language come from their moral superiority? What indeed is the chrism of their moral superiority over us, we normal people who do things like tell the truth, remain faithful in marriage, love our country and protect our children? These moral retards look down on us because they lie, commit adultery, commit perjury, blaspheme, kill unborn children, hold riots, celebrate cop-killers, and dabble in treason.
While we ponder that riddle further, let us go ask Alice. It seems Humpty Dumpty in Wonderland agrees with the Political Correctness mob. The philosophy involved is called ‘Nominalism’. Nominalism is the abstract idea that abstract ideas don’t exist.
... There's glory for you!'
`I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'
`But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected.
`When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'
`The question is,' said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master -- that's all.'
`I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'
`But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected.
`When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'
`The question is,' said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master -- that's all.'
So we would like to change the word Eskimo to the words Inuit and Aluet, substituting two obscure words for one clear one, on the grounds that in some third language that no one speaks and no one has heard about, something about it was vaguely racially insensitive slur, maybe.
I am weary of living in a world where race trumps all considerations of reason and justice. If need be, I would argue that racial slurs are a needed feature of our society. Racial slurs allow various races to develop a manly indifference to insult, which is part of the maturing process. By paying undue attention to an unimportant sidelight of manners, we might undermine honest courtesy, and abet an attempt to infantalize a whole tribe of man.
Perhaps the word Eskimo (or ‘sodomite’ or ‘fireman’ or ‘terrorist’ or ‘orient’) actually does offend someone, somewhere. If so, I say Walloon him and the Walloon he rode in on. That someone can learn to tolerate it, like a grown up. Tolerance is what we all promote, these days, is it not? I am merely adding my segment of rich cultural diversity, including my language and my traditions, into the multicultural feast of many dishes.
In language as in economics, whatever you subsidize, you multiply. Since we have spent years erecting utterly false and nonsensical verbal signs that point away from reality rather than toward it, in the name of ceasing to offend the sensitive, instead of a polite society, we achieved the opposite. The rudest society imaginable is one where everyone is hyper-sensitive, thin-skinned, and willing to see insults where none are intended, and, most of all, a society were everyone demands, as a matter of right, as a matter of entitlement, that no one cross or offend his ultra-fine nerves, which have been sandpapered to the most exquisite pitch of sensitivity. The professional crybabies have been given a trump card that wins every hand and always collects the kitty. So, we get more crybabies. Dignity, adieu: rudeness, hail! Hail, horrors!
And when reasonable demands are exhausted, unreasonable demands emerge. Suffragettes reasonably demanded a vote. Feminists demand the rape laws be gender-neutral, even if women never have and never can perform the act technically called rape on a man. And here is where political correctness emerges. Since reality, by definition, cannot be changed on human whim, human language, which can be changed, is changed instead. A philosophy that excuses and buttresses dishonesty (“Language always changes!” -- “There is no truth!”) is a necessary component. A philosophy that preaches virtue and self-restraint, such a Stoicism, or one that preaches of a higher Truth, such as Christianity, must be expunged. A philosophy that teaches truth is illusion, such as the American version of Buddhism, what we can called McBuddhism, on the other hand, is nonthreatening to the empire of lies, and can be tolerated. Taoism and astrology are also vague and undemanding enough that they can fit into the “its true for you but not for me” matrix. (and here, by matrix, I mean the computer system run by the Left which drains your brain of its power to run their machines. Ask Morpheus about it.)
I am not saying we should not yield to reasonable demands. I am saying we have, and we need not further.
I am not saying a due care not to offend is not polite: but I am saying the whole culture around me has been infected with hyper-sensitive whiners, and has gone mad, and I wish no part of it. Political correctness in an innate and organic part of the death-cult of moral relativism, cultural self-loathing, socialist yearning for slave-chains, the devotion to destruction, deconstruction, and unreason.
It is not that I do not think people can be offended by plain speaking. It is just that I think the truly offended, those who have a right to be offended, have been drowned out by counterfeit claims. In much the same way, I do think there are real racists. Most of them are on the Left, and they hate Jews. It is just that I think the real racists have been lost in the blizzard of false accusations leveled by the Left against the innocent. They accuse everyone of racism. Their patron saint should be Titus Oates.
(n.b.: on the news just now, CNN called the governor of Texas a racist, on the ground that he is a federalists, who used the term States Rights, in a speech he gave to a mostly white audience. Such is what passes for news in the Brave New World of Big Brother. He may be watching Us, but I am not watching CNN).
Is ‘Eskimo’ a racial slur? I doubt it. But even were it so, I just don’t care. I am weary unto death of self-righteous dishonesty.
The boy has cried wolf once too often for me to heed his call.</div></div>
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April 17 2009, 22:48:27 UTC 3 years ago
Firstly, is it political correctness to, for instance, consider calling the country Nippon as opposed to Japan (seeing as the latter is a corruption of a corruption of the word)? What about to suggest calling Korea Corea?
Secondly, whenever people ask me what "BCE" and "CE" mean, I say that they mean "Before the Christian Era" and "Christian Era" respectively. If they're going to attempt to hijack date-telling, we ought to hijack it right back, I figure. Still, I hate BCE and CE because they're different lengths (so dates don't line up correctly).
Still, I agree. Political correctness is a severe problem in our society.
April 18 2009, 04:43:37 UTC 3 years ago
Oh, that's great!
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April 17 2009, 22:51:27 UTC 3 years ago
1. Eskimo was what non-Inuit aboriginals called them and it meant "raw meat eater" because they lived north of the tree line and thus, did not cook their food. It's not quite a racial slur where I come from (NWT, Canada). There is a hotel in Inuvik called the "Eskimo Inn" and I've never heard of anyone complain. Edmonton's football team is the Edmonton Eskimoes. Again, lots of fans up here. Apparently, people are more sensitive in the Eastern Arctic.
2. Interestingly, Inuktitut possesses three ordinal versions of nouns: Inuk (pronounced "inook") is one person, Inuuk (pronounced "inoo-uk") is two people, Inuit is more than two. I have three Inuit children so I must know these things.
3. Left to themselves, all nations will give themselves the name "people". For instance, Deutsch is an old German word for "Volk" which, of course, means people.
4. The best names are always those your enemy gives you. Left to ourselves, we will unfailingly opt for pablum. Christians tried to call themselves "Followers of the Way" (lame) but our enemies knew us better than we knew ourselves.
April 17 2009, 23:10:23 UTC 3 years ago
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April 17 2009, 23:20:43 UTC 3 years ago
Why that one?
April 17 2009, 23:31:56 UTC 3 years ago
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April 17 2009, 23:20:44 UTC 3 years ago
After all, if you as a gentleman of Virginia wish to be called a Virginian, and those envious mortals from less-happy states insisted on calling you and your flourishing family by the opprobrious epithet of (hmmm, don't know what might be considered insulting to Virginians, so have to invent something) "moles" (due to the coal mines?), would you not insist upon being referred to as you prefer?
Or the fine distinction whereby all Americans are known as Yanks, irregardless of whether or not they are indeed damn'd Yankees?
Though I do like your ruling on new elements of strong language.
This, from a blaa-muncher ;-)
April 17 2009, 23:33:09 UTC 3 years ago
During the recent riots in Helium the angry mob was yelling "Whiteskins go home!" at the royal family ...
(*runs away*)
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April 17 2009, 23:25:42 UTC 3 years ago
Eskimo vs. Inuit as names, etc.
On the Eskimo/Inuit thing:I agree with you. The vast number of non-English speaking people are called things which are at best poor transliterations and at worst downright insults in their own or other languages. Good example of the first: "Egyptian" for the Ancient Egyptians, who had a number of mostly flattering-to-themselves-and-insulting-t
(None, that is, but I: it refers to them as eaters of raw fish, a slight against their relative poverty).
Or "raw meat," but it works in both versions. Of course, the reason why they sometimes must have really done so was that fuel was sometimes hard to come by in the Arctic Circle; and except in summer there's not much non-meat or non-fish to eat!
April 17 2009, 23:37:46 UTC 3 years ago
Re: Eskimo vs. Inuit as names, etc.
AsApril 17 2009, 23:28:47 UTC 3 years ago
I have always found CE and BCE aggravating, though, and most black people I have known don't mind being called black. In fact, I worked with a girl from St. Thomas who would be insulted when people called her "African-American." She would icily inform them that not only had she not been born in Africa, she had never even been there.
April 17 2009, 23:44:27 UTC 3 years ago
(In Canada and Greenland, where the term "Eskimo" is generally frowned upon, there aren't any Yupik, though.)
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April 17 2009, 23:41:26 UTC 3 years ago
More Terminological Considerations (1)
I had to ban another commenter who 'corrected' my use of the word 'Mohammedan' to refer to the paynim, because he would neither apologize, answer, or shut up about it. He was worried about offending them, but not about offending me: a double standard."Mohammedan" is accurate and formed by analogy with "Christian" -- "Christians" follow the teachings of Christ, and "Mohammedans" the teachings of Mohammed. Of course, the Muslims want to claim that they, and they alone, are actually following the teachings of God, while practioners of all other faiths are at best deluded and uninformed, but why should a Christian, like you, or an atheist, like me, humor them in this delusion?
(Though note: I actually use "Muslim" most of the time to describe them, but mostly to avoid arguments of that sort. Maybe I should start referring to them as "Mohammedan" more, just to annoy people who will get offended by the term) :)
In the last 50 years, this deception has been successful, wildly successful. The purpose was to erect a wall to sever us from our fathers and grandfathers, so that, rootless, we would be weak and stupid. This has been done.
Very true -- and what it does is to make it difficult for many younger people to read older books and documents without flying off into irrelevant rages over the terminology. In doing so, it prevents them from actually focusing on the content.
• Using the word ‘Sexist’ is a lie, since it implies that recognizing the differences between the sexes (which even an idiot could not overlook) is a bigotry akin to racism. The word conflates two distinct concepts of misogyny (hatred of women) and romance (traditional attitudes towards lovers, wives and mothers).
"Sexism" on analogy with "racism" would be having unreasonable prejudices based on sexual differences. OTOH, it's almost never used that way by those who use the term the most: they use it to refer only to unreasonable male prejudices against women (which, you're right, would more logically be "misogynism").
Note that reasonable prejudices against persons of other races or sexes are simply logical thinking. For instance, if I need a lot of heavy goods moved manually in my warehouse, I will try to hire people based partially on strength, and this will perforce mean that I will hire mostly men, since men tend to be stronger than women. Misogynism would be if I hired Randy the Reed in preference to Bertha the Boxcar for this task, even though Randy is much smaller and weaker, simply because I believe "women can't do this kind of job."
April 17 2009, 23:54:06 UTC 3 years ago
Re: More Terminological Considerations (1)
"Maybe I should start referring to them as "Mohammedan" more, just to annoy people who will get offended by the term"Go old-school with "Mohametan". It worked for GKC.
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April 17 2009, 23:46:56 UTC 3 years ago
Hating vs. Fearing Gays
• The word ‘Homophobia’ is a lie, since it implies that a normal respect for decency is a mental disorder. (Unless you use it to mean pathological fear of being alone, its original meaning). This word is a masterpiece of lying, and we should pause a moment to admire the breathtaking insolence involved. Crazy people dismiss sane people as insane on the grounds that the sane people are not crazy.I half-agree with you. The problem with "homophobia" is that (assuming that it means fear of homosexuals) is that most "homophobics" are not actually afraid of gays as much as they hate or dislike them for being gay. A better word formation would be "mis-"(some word meaning homosexual). Unfortunately, no such word exists in the English language, or as far as I know ever did.
The Left calls it "homophobia" because they mean to taunt those who dislike gays with the notion that they are actually afraid of them. Interestingly, Muslims are rarely accused of gynophobia, which they could be seen as suffering with far greater justice.
I personally don't think that gays are insane; I think it's a matter of natural human variability in behavior, probably had a genetic evolutionary advantage in hunter-gatherer times, and has probably acquired some cultural-evolutionary advantage in civilized time. Note in particular that creative people tend to be disproportionately gay (which is not, of course, the same thing as saying that all or even a majority of creative people are gay, which would be a false statement).
Maybe it's a matter of shunting the psychological energy that would otherwise go toward building a family into external work?
April 17 2009, 23:54:47 UTC 3 years ago
Re: Hating vs. Fearing Gays
misosodomistry?3 years ago
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April 17 2009, 23:54:13 UTC 3 years ago
Black, Negro, African-American
• Using the phrase 'African-American' to refer to a Negro is a lie, as any Canadian African-American can attest. Charlize Theron is an African-American. Vonetta Flowers was announced as being “the first African-American from any country” to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics.Totally agree. The use in general of "African" for "black" (meaning "Negro") is a deliberate muddying of the anthropological waters, and one to the advantage of believers in a broad black heritage. To begin with, the people who live north of the Sahara are not for the most part Negro, but rather Caucasian. Thus the Phoenecians, ancient Egyptians, and especially the Ptolemaic dynasty (who weren't even of North African descent) were not Negroes.
Secondly, until around 1000 BC to AD 1000, Negroes only lived in the "Sudanic" belt just south of the Sahara Desert (which in even earlier times was a savannah-type plain). It was not until they acquired iron weapons and tools, and quite a bit of civilization (from the Ancient Egyptians, mostly) that African Negroes began to expand over the central and southern parts of Africa. They conquered, displaced and/or massacred the mostly Pgymay and Hottentot-related peoples who previously inhabited these regions. By conflating "African" with "Negro," one thus covers up the fact that most of Africa was not "originally" (whatever that means) Negro.
As for "African-American," the term is absurd because it tells one almost nothing about racial origins, and because it treats America as the only important country in the world. As you pointed out, not all Negroes living outside of Africa are living in "America" (not even if you broaden the term to include Latin America); and as I pointed out, not all people living in Africa are or were "Negro."
April 18 2009, 04:47:18 UTC 3 years ago
Re: Black, Negro, African-American
It is also very hard on fantasy writers. I can say a Black man or a Negro but not an African-America if my story does not take place in America.3 years ago
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April 18 2009, 02:49:49 UTC 3 years ago
Ah, that's politics
"Walking into a bar in Flanders and calling everyone a Walloon is a guaranteed recipe for being beaten within an inch of one's life. :P"Seeing as how the Low Countries were split in the 16th/17th century between the North and the South, with the South being ruled by the Hapsburgs (Spanish/Austrian) and the North still having the French Burgundian influence, there were the two groups of French-speakers (Walloons) and Dutch-speakers (Flemings). French being the language of privilege (sort of the way the Normans still spoke French after the Conquest and it was the language of the court, the church, and the law, while Anglo-Saxon was the tongue of the serfs), you can guess the class unrest that provoked.
Throw in the Wars of Religion (Protestant versus Catholic) and let simmer for a couple of hundred years, et voila! The same reaction as if you, for example, called a bunch of Canadians 'Americans' or said there was no difference between the Irish and the English :-)
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April 17 2009, 23:57:24 UTC 3 years ago
Overseas Contingency Operations against Anti-Islamic Militants
• Using the phrase “manmade disasters” to refer to enemy terrorist attacks is a lie. Using the phrase to “Overseas Contingency Operations” to refer to the War on the Islamic Terror Masters is a lie.• Calling a terrorist a “militant” is a lie. It is also treason, in that it gives aid and comfort to the enemy.
Correct on both. The idea -- and it's an astounding infantile one -- seems to be that we can define away dangers. "Manmade disasters" sound like unfortunate accidents; an "overseas contingency operation" could be anything including disaster relief; and a "militant" calls to mind the suffragettes or angry demonstrators. I'm not even sure that the motive of subversion is actually the dominant one here -- I think that some people are both very cowardly and very unrealistic, and really believe that the danger is less if sugar-coated in more pleasant terms. But the effect is to hinder our war effort, because it hinders our ability to even think about it clearly.
April 18 2009, 00:34:55 UTC 3 years ago
Re: Overseas Contingency Operations against Anti-Islamic Militants
I'd also argue that "manmade disasters" is overbroad, as it can legitimately refer to everything from an oil spill to a 20-car pileup on the freeway. The truck explosion that took out a large chunk of I-580 in Oakland a few years ago was certainly disastrous, wholly manmade, and wholly accidental.April 18 2009, 00:03:58 UTC 3 years ago
April 18 2009, 16:56:02 UTC 3 years ago
That is my problem. I would LOVE to be tactful, but whenever I am, I find that the PC brats try to exploit my desire to be tactful by telling me it is rude to be a Christian Conservative, a logical thinker, a scientist, an economist, a student of history, and so on. Reality is what offends the 'reality-based' community, and I can be tactful with them only by being rude to reality.
I have been exploited, my good nature has been betrayed, and now as I as mad as hell, and I won't put up with it any more, not even when it is harmless and polite.
They are all Pecks and Waffle-eating Walloons as far as I am concerned.
3 years ago
April 18 2009, 00:05:29 UTC 3 years ago
Rape and Murder Most Foul!
• Using the word 'rape' to refer to an indeterminate set of sexual batteries is a lie, and a pointless lie, because it is trying to equalize the sexes on the basis of subjective victimhood. It also betrays risible illiteracy regarding basic biology. By mocking the pain of real rape victims and diminishing the crime of real rapists, it becomes a satanic lie.It hurts us in both directions.
First of all, it minimizes rape, which is a horrible and serious crime, by conflating it with molestation, harassment, and even after-the-fact romantic regrets. Secondly, it creates the illusion of omnipresent rape, because (depending on the definition used) one can claim that some ridiculously high percentage of men rape or women are raped, when (especially at the higher percentages) what is really meant is that a high percentage of men are rude and women take offense at this rudeness.
Combining the two, it can make it difficult for a woman to figure out exactly what environments and people she should worry about. Common sense tells us that spending a quiet evening with friends is far safer than drinking in a biker bar (*), but then young people don't often have a surplus of common sense -- especially if they have foolish parents and too much faith in college teachers.
===
(*) "Most rapes are by men known to the victim" is a beautiful example of How To Lie With Statistics, since the truth being concealed by this conflation is that -- even if "rape" is being used in the technically correct sense here, "known to the victim" merely means that she met him socially in some way shape or form. It might have been that very night. It does not mean that most women really need to tremble in fear that their husband, boyfriend or good friend is suddenly going to morph into a monster.
The similar claim that most murder victims are "killed by people they know" is precisely the same sort of Lie With Statistics, because "people they know" includes not only acquaintances but even enemies. Well, duh.
April 18 2009, 18:26:54 UTC 3 years ago
Re: Rape and Murder Most Foul!
"Most rapes are by men known to the victim" is useful for pointing out that there is minimal danger of assault by perfect stranger. The major problem is talking about the risk without talking about risky behaviour or the risky situations.Orentation at my university spent some time scaring the young women by recounting as many incidents of violent rape on campuses as could be found across Northern America (or so it seemed) without discussing actual likelyhood, or spending more then a few minutes discussing the problems of getting drunk with people you don't know very well.
I remember well the fear laden atmosphere when I was assigned to a woman's only residence (the other residences had men and women living on alternating floors).
I went out after DARK one day (it was winter so after dark was fairly early in the day) walking briskly on well lit paths to fetch something I forgot. You'd think I had decided to walk through a rough neighbourhood just after the bars had closed by the reactions. There were women scared to study in the upper levels of the Arts library! [Having spent hours up there I can say that I was never even approached for conversation let alone bothered in any fashion]
This despite the fact that the only assults against women (at least in public areas of campus) while I was attending was due to the bicyclist groper (guy on a bicycle who'd try to grope women while riding past them - I'm still surprised no one clotheslined him).
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April 18 2009, 00:09:21 UTC 3 years ago
Indeed. If I have my state ID and birth certificate stolen I may be an "undocumented worker," this does not make me an illegal alien. And not all "undocumented workers" are actually working, which makes their claim to be "workers" meaningless save perhaps in some hazy Marxist sense.
• Using the phrase ‘homeless person’ to refer to a bum or a panhandler is a lie.
Since, obviously, not all bums or panhandlers are homeless, nor do all homeless people beg in the streets. Indeed, some may even have jobs.
April 18 2009, 00:43:13 UTC 3 years ago
The Thought Police
In college, under threat of flunking, we had to write PC. The guidelines openly admitted that their purpose was identical to that of Newspeak: to prevent us from forming the concept of thoughtcrime.April 18 2009, 01:13:03 UTC 3 years ago
Yes, the name-magic, again. If we change what we call it, we change the reality. If we get rid of "he/she" distinctions in our language we can be a egalitarian as, say, Japan, which makes no such distinction in their pronouns. I recently read an essay - by a liberal - pointing out that the only result of changing a word that has become a slur is that the new word slowly becomes the slur, an eternal game of sliding euphemisms.
language changes
Yes, by evolution. But I don't believe in intelligent design of language. We're not that smart. See above.
My favorite examples of language changing.
1. In Beowulf, when Heorot is being restored:
..........fela thaera waes
wera ond wifa, the thaet win-reced,
gest-sele gyredon.
Wera and wifa were, resp. "weremann" and "wifmann" or "man" and "woman." The prefix "were-" [cognate with Latin vir] survives today only in werewolf. The prefix "wif-" survives as "wife." The suffix "-mann" meant only a rational being, and can be found in "manu" and other such terms. Instead of a war on the suffix "-man", turning "policeman" into the execrable "police-person" until the somewhat neutered "police officer" won out, we should have mounted a war to revive the noble prefix "were-". It was, after all, the males who had been deprived a term of their own!
2. My second favorite stemmed from seeing the term "goerl" in an Austrian newspaper. [Note: oe does service here for o-umlaut.] The etymology was thus: the term "girl" used to refer to children [i.e., under 12] of either sex. Because so many young males were indentured out as servants and apprentices, the term for a bound servant became applied to them: "boy," apparently from a Latin word referring to the slave collar. The equivalent term for a young female servant was "wench." For whatever reason, just as the generic "mann" became applied to males, the generic term "girl" became applied to young females. If female servitude had been more common than make servitude, it is conceivable that modern "boys and girls" would have been "girls and wenches."
April 18 2009, 04:38:42 UTC 3 years ago
Japan doesn't have pronoun distinctions-- that is hilariously amusing. No, they do not have he/she, but there are definitely pronouns to be used by women and ones to be used by men (as well as many, many nuances in vocabulary in general depending on whether you are male or female), as well as many rules as to when it is respectful to use said pronouns. But the truth is, Japanese frowns on the use of second-person pronouns in general, and should only be used sparingly. In other words, words are not gendered in Japan, but the sex of the speakers is definitely highlighted in the language.
Not to mention, if Japan is our model for sexual egalitarianism, the world has truly turned upside-down.
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April 18 2009, 01:54:06 UTC 3 years ago
No wonder so many people want to denigrate it as "only" semantics! "No, no! We must not argue about what is meant by a word and what word is actually said, we must argue on what is FELT!"
(se⋅man⋅tics /sɪˈmæntɪks/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [si-man-tiks] Show IPA
–noun (used with a singular verb) 1. Linguistics. a. the study of meaning.
b. the study of linguistic development by classifying and examining changes in meaning and form.
2. Also called significs. the branch of semiotics dealing with the relations between signs and what they denote.
3. the meaning, or an interpretation of the meaning, of a word, sign, sentence, etc.: Let's not argue about semantics.
4. general semantics.
http://dictionary.reference.com/sea
April 18 2009, 02:43:05 UTC 3 years ago
Uh...dude...
...I hate PC-speak as much as the next guy, but...somebody said a thing to you without intent to offend and--you got offended.Just like our hypothetical leftist's hypothetical eskimo.
Seriously, can I suggest an alternative response? When somebody "corrects" you like that, just say "Thanks for the information. I'll be sure to use it when I find it useful." Which you yet may--the implication being that, until then, you'll say what you damn well please.
Unless you just happen to like gettng all offended, in which case carry on.
--Skarl the Drummer
April 18 2009, 03:02:13 UTC 3 years ago
Re: Uh...dude...
I know a worse thing then being offended, and that's being "corrected" by someone who wants to control your thoughts, without being honest enough to say so, which might, after all, allow debate..........3 years ago
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April 18 2009, 03:13:06 UTC 3 years ago
I wonder if primitive peoples in isolated environments were even aware of the existence of other civilizations?
- "Using the phrase 'African-American' to refer to a Negro is a lie".
I have an acquaintance who was born and raised in Zimbabwe and is now a U.S. citizen. He is, literally, an "African-American". And yet he is 100% Caucasian (oops! is that considered a PC term, too?), demonstrating the nonsensical-ness of the term. You might be wise to use the word "black", rather than "Negro", though ;-) Come to think of it, I think the equally nonsensical term "Native American" was more popular a few decades ago when "Indian" was supposedly offensive. I see the term "Indian" used all the time now, although it is just as ambiguous as "Native American".
- "Using the phrase ‘sexual orientation’ to refer to sexual perversion is a lie, because it implies perversion is value-neutral matter of taste rather than a moral decision in the context of an objective standard."
A matter of taste!? How can anyone think that sexual orientation is a choice? Simply take... oh, let's call it "The Boner Test". Self-explanatory, I hope. Can a heterosexual male CHOOSE to become sexually aroused by looking at or thinking about another man? I know I can't. And vice versa. IT'S PHYSIOLOGICAL! But I'll agree that "homoPHOBIA" is an inaccurate term.
- "I would argue that racial slurs are a needed feature of our society. Racial slurs allow various races to develop a manly indifference to insult, which is part of the maturing process. By paying undue attention to an unimportant sidelight of manners, we might undermine honest courtesy, and abet an attempt to infantalize a whole tribe of man."
Wow! Now that's truly twisted. Might be interesting to get Miss Manners' take on that.
- "there are real racists. Most of them are on the Left, and they hate Jews."
If I could just find a Jewish Leftist I could disprove this. But where would I ever find such a person? ;-)
- deiseach says "all Americans are known as Yanks, irregardless [sic] of whether or not they are indeed damn'd Yankees"
My wife's family has deep roots in Virginia. Many of her relatives would take EXTREME umbrage at being called Yanks.
- axiem asks "is it political correctness to, for instance, consider calling the country Nippon as opposed to Japan"
I've wondered why people say, for example, "I am learning Farsi", not "I am learning Persian" ("Farsi" being the Persian-language word for the Persian language itself). We say "I am learning German", not "I am learning Deutsch". Is there something offensive about the word "Persian"? The word "Deutsch"? Is it about the perceived exoticism of the culture in question?
- axiem says "I hate BCE and CE because they're different lengths (so dates don't line up correctly)"
Really? I was under the impression that they referred to the exact same year 0, which was what made the new PC terms so idiotic. What's the real poop on this?
While I actually agreed with the vast majority of what you said, still my gut reaction was "Holy Shit! Such vitriol!" and it occurred to me that there might be such a thing as "Intellectual Correctness" whereby one can create a validly constructed argument that rests on demonstrably true premises and yet fail to persuade anyone to your side (the whole purpose of arguing) due to the actual presentation of your argument. You seem to come from the "I'd rather be right than be President" school, but if so, you will be forever preaching to the choir.
Okay, I'm ready for my thrashing now.
April 18 2009, 04:14:37 UTC 3 years ago
Yes, this is the sort of thing that bothers me :)
3 years ago
April 18 2009, 04:43:50 UTC 3 years ago
Native Americans are people who were born on American soil. I agree that the term Indian can be confused with people who hail from India, but life is full of confusions, and I'm more than willing to make the distinction for those who are questioning: dot or feather? I'm a feather Indian.
I also hate B.C.E. and C.E. Why take a perfectly functional Latin abbreviation and bastardize it for political correctness sake. I always say "Before Christ Entered" and "Christ Entered" in my head.
Oh, look, I didn't thrash. Some other time.
April 18 2009, 16:01:36 UTC 3 years ago
I use BC/AD whenever possible still, just to annoy the PC guardians.
3 years ago
April 18 2009, 04:46:05 UTC 3 years ago
It seems to me that there are potential problems taking either side. A people may exalt themselves by giving themselves inflated names and demanding others to bow to their whims. Or, conversely, a group of people may seek to denigrate another group by giving names that are either implicitly or explicitly insulting. Or perhaps the two groups may refer to each other by names that mean "Us" and "Them", in which case there seems little ground to choose one nomination over the other, leading to the problem of who possesses the power to decide.
Next, it seems to me that no insult should be taken where none is intended. Unfortunately, the PC people that I knew didn't seem to think that way. They came on the scene blustering and swearing like pirates, demanding that people become sensitive to their ideals, and forcing sensitivity and tolerance down peoples throats whether they cared for it or not. Under their hands I learned an important lesson: You cannot beat sensitivity into people. But you sure can beat it out of them.
Lastly: You made Spock a curse? NOOOOO!!!!!
April 18 2009, 04:59:48 UTC 3 years ago
April 18 2009, 05:00:59 UTC 3 years ago
You Southern Baccys
I suggest the term "baccy" to be heretofore offensive to Virginians, in reference to the fortunes of early settlers from growing tobacco (in some places they planted it in the streets, if my HS history textbook was to be believed).I think homeless person adequetley encaptulates the idea. My friends (who all identify as liberal Democrats) and I frequently encounter homeless people who are neither bums nor panhandlers nor even the mentally ill variety that was the the original source of the term. These are proud and arrogant people, to the point where if you give them food they will immediately throw it away or if you say your sorry that you can't help them (as Chesterton said, giving to the deserving poor is justice and giving to the undeserving poor is charity) they insult you.
As I understand it, the term Mohammedan and Mahometan (which are interchangeable, being different anglicinizations of the same Arabic name) were the politically correct terms of the late nineteenth century. Paynim is an evolution of pagan from the Song of Roland, where the Saracens are portrayed as polytheists. Saracen seems to be more of an ethnic term and Moor comes from Mauretania (the Roman province of northeast Africa) and eventually came to mean everyone from Africa (St. Benedict the Moor, for example, contrasted with Santiago Matamoros [St.James the Moor-slayer]).
April 18 2009, 19:09:22 UTC 3 years ago
Re: You Southern Baccys
Errata:I thought the racist term for an Eskimo was "Pie-face," from Eskimo Pie ice cream.
3 years ago
April 18 2009, 16:35:54 UTC 3 years ago
... in the same way that an unwanted peck on the cheek is "rape"? ;-)
April 18 2009, 17:01:11 UTC 3 years ago
LOL. I can tell when I am overmastered.
You are right. I should have said calling a terrorist a militant is pro-enemy propaganda, or, in other words, a loving kiss toward treason, but not treason itself.
Real treason requires substantial and material aid, such as, for example, by publishing the details of an intelligence gathering operation that aids the enemy in wartime a la the New York Times.
3 years ago
April 18 2009, 16:58:44 UTC 3 years ago
it is a theft of intellectual property,
Whose intellectual property?
April 18 2009, 17:07:08 UTC 3 years ago
Ours
The Church had a long and hard time making calendar corrections and gathering accurate astronomical data to bring the old Roman calendar in line with real astronomy. It was work. The calendar itself is an intellectual product, as much as a poem or a novel.The reason why it is called the Gregorian Calendar is that GREGOR, and no one else, authorized its implementation. The world uses it now, rather than Chinese or Islamic calendars, in part because of its accuracy and in part because of its international character.
The PC vermin did not redo that original work, did not take a single astronomical observation, did no math, did nothing, NOTHING. They were lazier than the revolutionaries of France, who at least got off their fat walloons long enough to rename the months and pick a new Year One.
These clinting sporks of political correctness, however, these pecking pecks, did not even bother to change the year one. THEIR YEAR ONE IS THE YEAR OF THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD!!!! They just want to pretend it is a new calendar, but they are using all our work, including when and where to do a leap year.
Tolkien did more work making up an invented calendar for his hobbits and elves in his book than the PC crowd did when they pirated our Christian calendar.
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