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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   28116 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 11, 2023

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The pejorative meaning crowds out other meanings. If your movements were described as "lurching" you would not feel this as a neutral descriptor.

No one says, "the goalie lurched to his left, making an amazing save". They say "the goalie lurched to his left, tripping on his face". It is only used in a negative context.

In fact, I'll go further. A negative connotation matters more than the actual definition. There are tons of words that average people can't define but they know are "bad". Using these words to describe your outgroup reveals a bias.

"The ship lurched to the port side."

"The ship of state lurched to the right."

If your movements were described as "lurching" you would not feel this as a neutral descriptor.

I wouldn't necessarily think that the describer had a negative opinion of me, though. If someone described me as lurching around sick, well, he's probably got a negative opinion of being sick, but not one of me. And when used in the abstract the "drunk" connotation is less relevant and I wouldn't take a negative connotation from someone describing a group including me as "lurching" in an abstract sense.

Also, you are participating or attempting to participate in what appears to be the early stages of a hyperstitious slur cascade and this is bad.

Funny enough, I stated earlier on this week's thread that I only participate in hyperstitious slur cascades once 90% of people have joined. (versus Scott's 70%).

I stand by that here, and believe that lurch is used negatively nearly 100% of the time. We'll have to agree to disagree.

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