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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023

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There's no such thing as "just" telling people to not drink Bud Light, the context of doing so is common knowledge.

I don't think that means there isn't "just" telling people not to drink Bud Light or shop at Target or whatever. It just means that when you "just" tell people to do that, you also necessarily include the context of the common knowledge. That doesn't make a message to Christians to boycott Bud Light not "just" telling people not to drink Bud Light; that's still literally "just" what it is.

This seems like quibbling over the definition of "Just". Physically what you're doing is "Just saying words" but this isn't a defense because cognitively, your brain is assigning meaning to those words and wielding them with intent. There is no such thing as Just doing without meaning. Sure. Literally all you're doing observably is Just saying words, sure.

When someone says

There's no such thing as "just" telling people to not drink Bud Light, the context of doing so is common knowledge.

I think it's clear enough which of these they mean that we don't have to quibble about their usage of language.

This seems like quibbling over the definition of "Just".

I mean, yes. That's what the whole subthread is about, starting with the claim that the statement was "blatantly false" in the comment to which I was responding. I don't think it's blatantly false. You could say that it's arguably misleading, especially in the context of a Christian boycott of Bud Light and Target being clear "enemy action" from the perspective of partisan Reddit mods, but if there's room to quibble over the words - and there is such room - then it's not the case that it's blatantly false.