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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 27, 2023

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Agreed. I think calling something like this "memocide" or "memetic violence" just puts a different label on the basic concept of "arguing with words," which is no worse and no better for whatever label we put on it, even if it has "-cide" and "violence" on the label. I think it's akin to how "transphobia" has come to mean things like "believing that MTF transwomen are biological males," which don't gain some sort of irrational fear/hatred attached to it just because "phobia" is now part of the label, or how "racism" has come to mean things like "believing that differential racial outcomes aren't definitionally proof of bigotry," which don't gain some sort of bigotry attached to it just because "-ism" is now part of the label.

A rose by any other name and all that. And to quote another famous saying, this might not matter much, because the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent: the negative affect of these new labels could (and has) bulldoze plenty of plenty of innocent bystanders while the actual meaning of the terms flow through to all of society.