curl-6 said:
A very good point. |
There is an attempt at power by playing victimization through the use of language, by changing the meaning of words in order to try to score points and win power, bothers me. People don't mean what they say, but use words to get used to cause people to act certain ways. I am not saying this to diminish suffering and people who are disadvantaged, but to point out abuse of words.
I also see cases where bad situations keep getting new words for them, because eventually the original word gets negative associations by reality of what they describe. People who have had disabilities or handicaps, end up having to change those words, becaue no matter how much the words attempt to stick, they eventually get overrun by the reality that people can't do something, and are limited. Now it is a person is "physically challenged". "Retarded" meant that a person had slowed (retarded) learning, but then that was seen as bad, so they had to change it. Eventually "challenged" will go away also. It is like, people who can't accept certain realities feel the need to change words presuming it makes their reality better. Even handicapped could be a stronger word. People get handicaps to equalize themselves in sports competition. But nope, can't go with that, because handicapped has negative connotations. We have to somehow make EVERYTHING wonderful. BLECH! Everything is NOT wonderful in life. It would be good if people get past this... but then I get into railing against this "self-esteem" garbage being peddled as a cure all.
