If ever you wondered where the mania for imprecise language comes from, read Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender & Identity & Why This Harms Everybody, which should be shortened to the much more precise Everything Wrong With The Left. It's a terrifically all-encompassing explanation of critical e…
If ever you wondered where the mania for imprecise language comes from, read Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender & Identity & Why This Harms Everybody, which should be shortened to the much more precise Everything Wrong With The Left. It's a terrifically all-encompassing explanation of critical everything theory including race, gender, queer (not a lot on trans, actually), disability, postcolonial and fat studies theory. Especially how much it's believed that you can change the world by changing discourse, i.e., the way we speak. It delves deep into how language broadens to include everything Theorists (they use a capital T to separate them from general theorists) they don't like. Also, part of the near-religion is the notion that whatever theory you favour, it's 'baked into' everything in the world so that everything is always about race, gender, fat, whatever your pet Theory is.
It's making me think how we need to reclaim language from these people and hold their feet to the fire on what words actually mean.
As for Brigit thinking she knows what life is like for all black people? It's a skewed vision based on the narrative put forth by the mainstream and social media, and she's heard the lie often enough (it's a lie when it leads one to think it's the *only* way to be black in America - constantly under attack by 'white supremacy') that, as Heinrich Himmler (or was it Goebbels?) noted, if you repeat the lie often enough people eventually believe it.
"If ever you wondered where the mania for imprecise language comes from, read Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender & Identity & Why This Harms"
I haven't read this yet, but yes, critical theory has infected every single social justice movement it seems. Mainly because it makes it extraordinarily easy to figure out who the bad guys and good guys are. And the good guys are *made* good by an immutable characteristic. So they can never do anything wrong, no matter how grotesque their behaviour is. It's perfect!😅
What's scary is that they're right. You *can* change the world by changing discourse. And frighteningly quickly. Language has become a Trojan horse where people who aren't paying attention are suddenly unable to define words like "racism" or "sex" or "woman". The redefinitions are slipped in under the guise of kindness and then accuracy itself becomes "oppression" (another word they struggle to define).
It's astonishing how quickly it's happened, and to be honest, I worry that we it's too late to reclaim the language.
Nahhhh, it's never too late. Back when I was a headstrong kid back in the Jurassic era (in Ohio) I used to argue with Christian fundamentalists until I realized that I've got to stop arguing on their turf....I have to argue on *my* turf (science and reason). You don't win arguments with them this way but you don't lose them either :)
We can reclaim he 'discourse' from them by insisting they stick to original meanings. It's not 'evolution' as one has argued to me, it's *de-evolution* when meaning broadens to include everything the SJW (Social Justice Warrior) doesn't like. Once we approach Critical Theory as the religion it is, we can help it destroy itself, as the Christian Right is doing with Trump support. He's not dead yet, but he will be...either figuratively or literally when he succumbs to one too many Big Mac Attacks in general.
You're challenging it *now*, Steve, by challenging CRT. I'm challenging Critical Gender Theory (i.e., 'victim feminism'). To paraphrase the Bible (badly) "Generations come and go, but Reason abideth forever." (Ecclesiastes 1:4, although I may be paraphrasing...just a bit :) )
"You're challenging it *now*, Steve, by challenging CRT."
Oh yeah, I'm not saying we can't defeat the excesses of these ideologies, but as much as I hate to be pessimistic, I worry that the battle over the words themselves, and in turn some of the concepts, are in real danger.
I wonder how many 18-25-year-olds can confidently and without tautology define the word "woman". I wonder how many of them haven't absorbed the race essentialism and victimhood of certain CRT infused doctrines. I wonder how many of them could (or would dare to) speak coherently about these topics.
I don't know, maybe I just need a break from the internet.😅 I'm fresh off yet another conversation, with a woman this time, who was arguing that acknowledging the biological differences between males and females is transphobic. I keep coming across people who are so deeply confused, and are convinced that their confusion is a virtue.
She's being gaslit. She's allowing brainwashing to make her deny the evidence of her own lying eyes. The proof is here: Transmen menstruate WITHOUT menstruation suppressors; transwomen NEVER get pregnant and have babies. Their bodies do what they were designed to do; they don't care what one's 'identity' is. They're still biologically whatever they were born with. Sometimes, anatomy IS destiny. This is a GREAT opportunity for you to argue on your own turf with science and reason, and hold her to it.
I can't wait to see the article on *that* conversation!
If ever you wondered where the mania for imprecise language comes from, read Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender & Identity & Why This Harms Everybody, which should be shortened to the much more precise Everything Wrong With The Left. It's a terrifically all-encompassing explanation of critical everything theory including race, gender, queer (not a lot on trans, actually), disability, postcolonial and fat studies theory. Especially how much it's believed that you can change the world by changing discourse, i.e., the way we speak. It delves deep into how language broadens to include everything Theorists (they use a capital T to separate them from general theorists) they don't like. Also, part of the near-religion is the notion that whatever theory you favour, it's 'baked into' everything in the world so that everything is always about race, gender, fat, whatever your pet Theory is.
It's making me think how we need to reclaim language from these people and hold their feet to the fire on what words actually mean.
As for Brigit thinking she knows what life is like for all black people? It's a skewed vision based on the narrative put forth by the mainstream and social media, and she's heard the lie often enough (it's a lie when it leads one to think it's the *only* way to be black in America - constantly under attack by 'white supremacy') that, as Heinrich Himmler (or was it Goebbels?) noted, if you repeat the lie often enough people eventually believe it.
"If ever you wondered where the mania for imprecise language comes from, read Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender & Identity & Why This Harms"
I haven't read this yet, but yes, critical theory has infected every single social justice movement it seems. Mainly because it makes it extraordinarily easy to figure out who the bad guys and good guys are. And the good guys are *made* good by an immutable characteristic. So they can never do anything wrong, no matter how grotesque their behaviour is. It's perfect!😅
What's scary is that they're right. You *can* change the world by changing discourse. And frighteningly quickly. Language has become a Trojan horse where people who aren't paying attention are suddenly unable to define words like "racism" or "sex" or "woman". The redefinitions are slipped in under the guise of kindness and then accuracy itself becomes "oppression" (another word they struggle to define).
It's astonishing how quickly it's happened, and to be honest, I worry that we it's too late to reclaim the language.
Nahhhh, it's never too late. Back when I was a headstrong kid back in the Jurassic era (in Ohio) I used to argue with Christian fundamentalists until I realized that I've got to stop arguing on their turf....I have to argue on *my* turf (science and reason). You don't win arguments with them this way but you don't lose them either :)
We can reclaim he 'discourse' from them by insisting they stick to original meanings. It's not 'evolution' as one has argued to me, it's *de-evolution* when meaning broadens to include everything the SJW (Social Justice Warrior) doesn't like. Once we approach Critical Theory as the religion it is, we can help it destroy itself, as the Christian Right is doing with Trump support. He's not dead yet, but he will be...either figuratively or literally when he succumbs to one too many Big Mac Attacks in general.
You're challenging it *now*, Steve, by challenging CRT. I'm challenging Critical Gender Theory (i.e., 'victim feminism'). To paraphrase the Bible (badly) "Generations come and go, but Reason abideth forever." (Ecclesiastes 1:4, although I may be paraphrasing...just a bit :) )
We will win. The truth always comes out.
"You're challenging it *now*, Steve, by challenging CRT."
Oh yeah, I'm not saying we can't defeat the excesses of these ideologies, but as much as I hate to be pessimistic, I worry that the battle over the words themselves, and in turn some of the concepts, are in real danger.
I wonder how many 18-25-year-olds can confidently and without tautology define the word "woman". I wonder how many of them haven't absorbed the race essentialism and victimhood of certain CRT infused doctrines. I wonder how many of them could (or would dare to) speak coherently about these topics.
I don't know, maybe I just need a break from the internet.😅 I'm fresh off yet another conversation, with a woman this time, who was arguing that acknowledging the biological differences between males and females is transphobic. I keep coming across people who are so deeply confused, and are convinced that their confusion is a virtue.
She's being gaslit. She's allowing brainwashing to make her deny the evidence of her own lying eyes. The proof is here: Transmen menstruate WITHOUT menstruation suppressors; transwomen NEVER get pregnant and have babies. Their bodies do what they were designed to do; they don't care what one's 'identity' is. They're still biologically whatever they were born with. Sometimes, anatomy IS destiny. This is a GREAT opportunity for you to argue on your own turf with science and reason, and hold her to it.
I can't wait to see the article on *that* conversation!