Atheism

Politics

Memes

Mind

Matters

String

Random

Interact

Feedback

Email

Links

Debate

Home

Call a spade a spade

Some words are simply offensive and have no other purpose than to degrade the person on whom the label is put. Nigger has no legitimate function, it is only used to either shock or offend. I find it bizarre that black people in the USA are calling themselves niggers (or niggas) as if this will draw the sting from the word. If a word is used as an insult it is an insult. If is not intended to be an insult it is not an insult. If it is received as an insult but not transmitted as one then there has been a breakdown in communication. Where the fault lies depends on whether either the transmitter or receiver of the word could be expected to know of the possible confusion.

In the case of nigger there is no confusion, nobody in any western country today could be excused for not knowing that the word will cause offence. In contrast Jew is usually simply descriptive, but can be used as a taunt, whether it is offensive depends on the intention and the intonation.

Some words have no other function than as insults. But most of the words shunned by the PC lobby are fine words replaced by gibberish. Is a man any less a cripple if you call him "physically challenged"? No. Cripple is accurate and descriptive. Physically challenged does not mean confined to a wheelchair, I am regularly physically challenged by life while maintaining full use of my legs.

Differently abled to me conjures up images of people who can waggle their ears or predict the weather with their kneecaps. Nobody becomes differently abled by losing an ability which the rest of the community takes for granted. It is a nasty weasel word. People who are disabled are just that, still people but without particular abilities you could normally assume most people have. The word invalid is a nasty one which should go, it refers to people who are no longer valid, no longer fit for active duty as cannon-fodder. Nobody can be born in-valid.

People know what the word disabled means. It is a straight-forward word. People also know that when you blow the tracks off a tank you have disabled it, crippled it, you have not made it differently abled.

What is GENDER? It means type. Words have gender, people have sex. "Person of gender" is gobbledegook, and it also directly implies a person of the lesser gender.

There is a perfectly good and useful word to describe people who are mentally defective; idiot. No matter what label such people are given it will not make them what they are not.

"Vertically challenged" is a very obscure concept which might mean a person who was slightly below average height, a dwarf, a midget or somebody who suffers from vertigo. All very different, all better expressed in unambiguous words.

Language does not drive thought

If language drove thought it would be impossible to get in the situation of knowing what you wanted to say but forgetting the word. Or of knowing that when you have tried your best to express your thoughts the words still do not communicate what you are thinking. If words made thoughts how could you know your words did not express your thoughts? A couple of weeks ago I knew I wanted to to express the idea of a self contradicting word but I struggled to recall the word oxymoron. If words created thoughts would I have been able to know my memory was failing me, or would the concept have been literally unthinkable?

We could purge the word nigger for ever from everybody's vocabulary, it would not stop people from thinking racist thoughts. Thought goes on underneath language. Racism goes on underneath thought.

© 1999 - 2008 by Martin Willett.

mwillett.org: Debate Unlimited