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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32882 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022

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It's not that something is gained by saying it, so much as something is lost by giving the word so much power that we don't even respect the use/mention distinction. I think it's deeply unhealthy to treat the word as some sort of magical incantation that causes harm no matter the context. As such, I agree that we should seek to preserve the use/mention distinction as regards "nigger", or any other obscenities for that matter - not because it's a gain, but because being neurotic about the word is a loss.

It's not that something is gained by saying it, so much as something is lost by giving the word so much power that we don't even respect the use/mention distinction.

I agree that the collapse of the use/mention distinction does in fact cost us all something. I agree that it is silly to treat a word like it blights the lives of anyone who hears it. But the taboo didn't start here, and it won't end here. Mentioning it here in the ghetto doesn't make things any better out there, and it does actually have costs. You may believe that people put off by the word need to grow up, and that if that's the straw on the camel's back that results in them leaving then it's on them. And maybe you're even right. But I actually come here to talk to those people, and if they leave this place is useless to me. The conversations we have here burn a lot of charity, and so increasing the efficiency of that burn is useful. If they're going to be driven out of here, I'd rather they get driven out by a well-supported, evidence-based argument about the actual realities of, say, racial conflict, not by people proving to themselves that they can still type five specific letters without being smote by a vengeful deity.

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