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this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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I just want to point out that amidst all the death and destruction, you're problem is how people are using a word. What can be more bad faith than ignoring the reality and fighting over the signifier?
Words are not reality; you cannot drive home in the word "car".
Words explain ideas, improper definitions lead to miscommunications. Words matter and changing definitions has always been a sign of an attempt to smuggle ideas in.
"Genocide" used to mean a concerted attempt to actively exterminate a group of people based on their race. Now it just means "anything that disrupts local culture." It's like watering down the word "murder" to mean "physical assault." It's not that assaulting people is ok, it's that it's not murder.
"Words don't matter" is some of the most smooth brain bullshit I've ever seen, as if our entire conceptualization of ideas isn't rooted in what words we use to define them.