Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Suggestibility and the Language Lemming

The language lemming hears a word or phrase, thinks it 'cool,' and just has to use it whether or not it makes sense. 'Demo' below is being used as an abbreviation of 'demolish.' Now there is something dubious about the excessive use of abbreviations these days, but let that pass.  The point I want to make is that, below, the correct word is 'replace' not 'demolish.'  Of course, you, or rather a highly suggestible 'liberal' language lemming, could demolish a carpet that has been removed, although  it is not clear how one would go about doing that.  The point is that a replacement is not a demolition.

Does language matter? Well, does it matter if we refer to illegal aliens as 'migrants'? If not, then it won't matter that 'migrant' is now being replaced by 'newcomer.'

 

Demo the carpet

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Bill Vallicella

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One response to “Suggestibility and the Language Lemming”

  1. EG Avatar
    EG

    I suppose this is the infection of that hyper-liberal trend, that inevitable way in which culture (in the Pieperian sense of cultus, see his Leisure: The Basis of Culture) changes how we interpret and interact with reality and assign meaning to things. So there is this tension, that will also inevitably erupt into (violent) conflict, that exists at the boundary of these changes about the old and the new, and the respective battles about what is True about Reality, and language is certainly one of the most elemental ways in which we do this, and by that quality, it powerfully shapes how we see and interpret Reality, and even where we allow that language is a how a people use it, it is therefore very important that we agree on definite and specific meanings and not dilute them, but more and more, this conservative impulse fights a sort of losing battle. Yet, Bill as you definitely agree, the fighting is still important and necessary.

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