A study in how language misdescribes violence, war, and the use of force.
{ Monthly Archives }
Peace on Earth.
Good will to all.
Most days, this wish is something I try not to think about too much because it feels like we are so far away from it that it’s just too painful to think about.
But not today. Today I feel a little more hope than usual. Christmas makes peace feel possible.
Merry Christmas everyone.
May we all feel a little peace today.
On 18 December 2010, the US Senate passed a measure which would repeal the Don’t Ask,Don’t Tell policy in the military. The Secretary of Defense said the Pentagon will begin implementing the repeal immediately.
Prior to the repeal, the Pentagon did a study to predict what impact repeal would have. In a survey of nearly half a million servicemembers, 70% said repeal would be positive, mixed, or no consequences.
I think its a good thing to get rid of bigotry. I dont know if it was worth the 500 billion dollar tax cut for millionaires the Obama gave away in trade to win this. I think it shoukd have been possible to repeal this a lot cheaper. But if Obama has shown us anything about his presidency, he has made abundantly clear that he is no horse trader.
I get the impression that he would see an item at a yard sale for $1 and demand to pay $3 for it just on principle. But only if the seller also allows him to provide free advertising and a ride on air force one.
I ran across a blog discussing privilege. The thread started by. someone asking how to explain the concept of white male privilege to their white male boyfriend. I replied that privilege means a lot of different things to different people. And I said the strict definition would be a benefit the dominant class gets as a result of djscrimination that raises them above the equality waterline. The response?
“You’re boring.”
I guess diving into the nitty gritty of vocabulary can get boring. But they were asking for help for explaining a term to someone, so I sort of assumed that an exploration of meaning might occur at some point. But OK.
They also posted a thread here:
The thread talks about how a scene in Dr Who is ‘sexual assault’. I disagreed and pointed out the definition of assault and sexual assault didn’t match what was in the scene. Their response?
“The legal definition of anything is wholly irrelevant to this discussion”
I am not sure what ‘sexual assault’ means to a person if they think the legal meaning of the term is ‘wholly irrelevant’, but I assume discussing the issues of the world are a whole lot easier when you get to throw around words and phrases and ignore any rigid definition of your words.
And call any attempt to discuss those terms ‘boring’. And then ban anyone from commenting who posts a definiton you don’t like.
I really shouldn’t be surprised. There is no possible way for the idea of ‘privilege’ to evolve into an all things to all people definition without people like that. People who call definitions boring, who use terms with legal meanings but say the legal meaning is irrelevent, and who ban folks who post links to dictionary definitions of words.
There is no other way to have humpty dumpty usages of a phrase without individual humpty dumpties running around in the world.
I don’t why it surprises me every time I run into a real live Humpty Dumpty. But it does.