On the Use and Abuse of Neologisms

[smac97]

I was a big fan of Bloom County back in the day.  I was a teen when it was in its heyday (the 80s), and I found it consistently funny and occasionally thoughtful (though it doesn't hold a candle to Calvin and Hobbes).

I remember reading this one:

At the time (1988) I did really not get the humor.  It has become more apparent to me now.

We seem to be living in an era where neologisms ("a newly coined word or expression") are quite prominent.  I have wondered why.  I think the answer is because those who are presenting these new words are now attempting to control discourse, and hence thought and behavior.

Last month Harper's Magazine published an interesting article on this phenomenon: Lefty Lingo.  It's worth a read, as it takes swipes at most of various contemporary buzzwords, some of which tend to, well, bug me:

• "Privilege" (a word that "functions something like a rotten tomato without the mess," that "neatly dispossesses those so stigmatized of any credit for their achievements while discounting as immaterial those hurdles an individual with a perceived leg up might still have had to overcome," and purports to describe "a static state into which you are born, stained by original sin ...  you can’t earn yourself into privilege, {and} you can’t earn yourself out of it, either," and while it "may also mean 'straight and male,' it almost always means 'white'"), 
• "Check your privilege" (which "translates simply to 'S.T.F.U.'"),
• "Woke,"
• "People of color" (though, as you can see from the above comic, this one dates way back),
• "Slave" (apparently it can't be used as a noun anymore),  
• “Minorities,” “marginalized communities," "cultural appropriation" (which "assumes the conclusion that cultural cross-fertilization equates with theft"),
• "Cisgender" (described by the writer as "{t}he premier example of this linguistic skulduggery—that is, winning an argument without the bother of actually having one," and often used "to endorse the view that sex is 'assigned' at birth rather than recognized as a biological fact"),
• "Microagression" (described as "a perverse concoction, implying that the offense in question is so minuscule as to be invisible to the naked eye, yet also that it’s terribly important," and "{a} word {that} cultivates hypersensitivity"),
• "'Transphobic,' 'Islamophobic,' and 'homophobic'" (which are both "ubiquitous" and yet also "eccentric" because "the reprobates so branded are not really being accused of fearfulness but hatred"),
• "Hate" ("hatred" having "gone the way of the floppy disk"),
• "Lived experience" ("interchangeable with 'experience,' save that the redundant double-barrel is pompous"),
• "LGBTQ" ("The alphabet soup of 'LGBTQ' continues to add letters: LGBTQIAGNC, LGBTQQIP2SAA, or even LGBTIQCAPGNGFNBA. A three-year-old bashing the keyboard would produce a more functional shorthand, and we already have a simpler locution: queer."), 
• “Problematic” and “troubling” ("coyly nonspecific red flags for political transgression that obviate spelling out exactly what sin has been committed (thereby eliding the argument)"), and
• "Inappropriate" (an "all-purpose adjectival workhorse" that "presumes a shared set of social norms that in the throes of the culture wars we conspicuously lack").

Wow.  That's a pretty comprehensive list.  I'm trying to think of comparable neologisms from the "right," but I honestly can't think of any offhand.  Any suggestions?

As you can see, these terms mostly pertain to issues of race, sexual orientation/behavior, and gender.  More to the point, they don't seem to be identifying new ideas or concepts, and are instead just new (though increasingly clichéd) labels for preexisting ideas.  

There are a few exceptions to this, though.  "Cisgender" seems to reflect a novel concept (that sex is not biologically determined, and instead is merely and arbitrarily "assigned at birth").

Similarly, "microagressions" seem to be, frankly, a fiction.  A boogeyman created to stifle and suppress viewpoints and discussion, and to censor and stifle specific individuals.

So what should we do with these words?  Employ them?  Resist them?  Ridicule them?  Wait until they fade into obscurity?

Are any of these gaining traction in the Church?  "LGBTQ" certainly has.  But that may be it.  And "homophobic" has certainly been used against us.

Thanks,

-Smac

Edited January 9, 2020 by smac97

[bluebell]

7 minutes ago, smac97 said:

I was a big fan of Bloom County back in the day.  I was a teen when it was in its heyday (the 80s), and I found it consistently funny and occasionally thoughtful (though it doesn't hold a candle to Calvin and Hobbes).

I remember reading this one:

At the time (1988) I did really not get the humor.  It has become more apparent to me now.

We seem to be living in an era where neologisms ("a newly coined word or expression") are quite prominent.  I have wondered why.  I think the answer is because those who are presenting these new words are not attempting to control discourse, and hence thought and behavior.

Last month Harper's Magazine published an interesting article on this phenomenon: Lefty Lingo.  It's worth a read, as it takes swipes at most of various contemporary buzzwords, some of which tend to, well, bug me:

• "Privilege" (a word that "functions something like a rotten tomato without the mess," that "neatly dispossesses those so stigmatized of any credit for their achievements while discounting as immaterial those hurdles an individual with a perceived leg up might still have had to overcome," and purports to describe "a static state into which you are born, stained by original sin ...  you can’t earn yourself into privilege, {and} you can’t earn yourself out of it, either," and while it "may also mean 'straight and male,' it almost always means 'white'"), 
• "Check your privilege" (which "translates simply to 'S.T.F.U.'"),
• "Woke,"
• "People of color" (though, as you can see from the above comic, this one dates way back),
• "Slave" (apparently it can't be used as a noun anymore),  
• “Minorities,” “marginalized communities," "cultural appropriation" (which "assumes the conclusion that cultural cross-fertilization equates with theft"),
• "Cisgender" (described by the writer as "{t}he premier example of this linguistic skulduggery—that is, winning an argument without the bother of actually having one," and often used "to endorse the view that sex is 'assigned' at birth rather than recognized as a biological fact"),
• "Microagression" (described as "a perverse concoction, implying that the offense in question is so minuscule as to be invisible to the naked eye, yet also that it’s terribly important," and "{a} word {that} cultivates hypersensitivity"),
• "'Transphobic,' 'Islamophobic,' and 'homophobic'" (which are both "ubiquitous" and yet also "eccentric" because "the reprobates so branded are not really being accused of fearfulness but hatred"),
• "Hate" ("hatred" having "gone the way of the floppy disk"),
• "Lived experience" ("interchangeable with 'experience,' save that the redundant double-barrel is pompous"),
• "LGBTQ" ("The alphabet soup of 'LGBTQ' continues to add letters: LGBTQIAGNC, LGBTQQIP2SAA, or even LGBTIQCAPGNGFNBA. A three-year-old bashing the keyboard would produce a more functional shorthand, and we already have a simpler locution: queer."), 
• “Problematic” and “troubling” ("coyly nonspecific red flags for political transgression that obviate spelling out exactly what sin has been committed (thereby eliding the argument)"), and
• "Inappropriate" (an "all-purpose adjectival workhorse" that "presumes a shared set of social norms that in the throes of the culture wars we conspicuously lack").

Wow.  That's a pretty comprehensive list.  I'm trying to think of comparable neologisms from the "right," but I honestly can't think of any offhand.  Any suggestions?

As you can see, these terms mostly pertain to issues of race, sexual orientation/behavior, and gender.  More to the point, they don't seem to be identifying new ideas or concepts, and are instead just new (though increasingly clichéd) labels for preexisting ideas.  

There are a few exceptions to this, though.  "Cisgender" seems to reflect a novel concept (that sex is not biologically determined, and instead is merely and arbitrarily "assigned at birth").

Similarly, "microagressions" seem to be, frankly, a fiction.  A boogeyman created to stifle and suppress viewpoints and discussion, and to censor and stifle specific individuals.

So what should we do with these words?  Employ them?  Resist them?  Ridicule them?  Wait until they fade into obscurity?

Are any of these gaining traction in the Church?  "LGBTQ" certainly has.  But that may be it.  And "homophobic" has certainly been used against us.

Thanks,

-Smac

You said "I think the answer is because those who are presenting these new words are not attempting to control discourse, and hence thought and behavior."  Do you mean now instead of not?

That comic is hilarious.  

Edited January 9, 2020 by bluebell

[smac97]

21 minutes ago, bluebell said:

You said "I think the answer is because those who are presenting these new words are not attempting to control discourse, and hence thought and behavior."  Do you mean now instead of not?

That comic is hilarious.  

Thanks!  I fixed it.

And yes, the comic is pretty funny.  It has aged quite well.  

-Smac

[MiserereNobis]

When I was in high school (early 90s) I was dating a black girl for a few months. My grandmother was living with us. She had early stage dementia and, obviously, she was from a different generation. The first time she met my girlfriend she took her hand and said, "aren't you just the cutest little colored girl."

The comic brought back that experience.

I was horrified not because of the use of "colored" per se, but because of the blatant reference to her race on the very first meeting and the patronizing condescending "cutest little." This girl was on the basketball team and though I admit she was very cute she was definitely not little, around 6 foot as I recall. "Cutest little" felt wrapped up in her race, not in her physical appearance.

I can't imagine my grandmother saying to a white girl the first time she meets her: "aren't you just the cutest little white girl."

The attitude, the tone, and the reference to race is what bothered me. My girlfriend took it in stride and just dismissed it as an old lady with good intentions.

The TV show "Shameless" has a hilarious satire on gender identity. It's so subtly tongue-in-check that those who are 100% in on this sort of thing probably wouldn't recognize it's making fun of it. It's a minute and a half and worth checking out:

Also, for those who complain about the double standard of the use of the N word, I recommend this very short essay (2 pages) by Gloria Naylor, an African-American woman. It was titled "Mommy, What Does Nigger Mean?" but the only online link I could find to it has changed the title. Check it out here.

Edited January 9, 2020 by MiserereNobis

[MiserereNobis]

As far as neologisms for the Right, "deep state" comes to mind. And "mainstream media" referring to anything that's not FoxNews.

I've often found it a wonderful paradox that FoxNews brags about being the most watched news channel, which by definition would make it mainstream, and then decries the mainstream media.

Edited January 9, 2020 by MiserereNobis

[The Nehor]

Equivalent code words for the Right:

”Fake News” (“they” are all lying to you)
”Deep State” (“they” are everywhere working against us)
”RINOs” (traitors)
”mainstream media” (everyone but Fox and a few Internet outlets)
“Trump Derangement Syndrome” (insanity to oppose our chosen one)
“witch hunt” (investigations with no substance even when they generate indictments and guilt pleas)
”hoax” (easy dismissal, they are always lying to you)
”international elites” (Evil liberals in high positions, usually Jews)
”welfare queen” (welfare is theft)
”sovereign citizen” (self identifier to point out that you are batdung crazy)

That is off the top of my head. Fun code words. That you thought one side has a monopoly is pretty laughable.
 

Edited January 9, 2020 by The Nehor

[Peacefully]

I agree with The Nehor.

Here are a couple of more to add, lol

Snowflake

Drain the swamp

 

[Danzo]

I think it is funny.  You try to win arguments by defining words.

 

"Now I get to prepare for my meeting next week with cisgender  members of the deep state  ."  sure reads different than, "next week I am meeting with a bunch of men and women who work for the IRS"

 

[let’s roll]

1 hour ago, The Nehor said:

Equivalent code words for the Right:

”Fake News” (“they” are all lying to you)
”Deep State” (“they” are everywhere working against us)
”RINOs” (traitors)
”mainstream media” (everyone but Fox and a few Internet outlets)
“Trump Derangement Syndrome” (insanity to oppose our chosen one)
“witch hunt” (investigations with no substance even when they generate indictments and guilt pleas)
”hoax” (easy dismissal, they are always lying to you)
”international elites” (Evil liberals in high positions, usually Jews)
”welfare queen” (welfare is theft)
”sovereign citizen” (self identifier to point out that you are batdung crazy)

That is off the top of my head. Fun code words. That you thought one side has a monopoly is pretty laughable.
 

Here’s a new one the President offered up yesterday.

409K: a 401K for the 1%.  😀

Used In a sentence:  Since Trump has been President my 401K has grown into a 409K. 🎉

My one attempt at political humor for 2020.

Edited January 9, 2020 by let’s roll

[pogi]

1 hour ago, Danzo said:

I think it is funny.  You try to win arguments by defining words.

 

"Now I get to prepare for my meeting next week with cisgender  members of the deep state  ."  sure reads different than, "next week I am meeting with a bunch of men and women who work for the IRS"

 

I like how you use neologisms from both sides in the same sentence.  😁

That is something you might hear from the offspring of a welfare queen and privileged white guy.

Edited January 10, 2020 by pogi

[MustardSeed]

Let’s not forget the new hot word “unpack”. 

Or “triggered”. 

And since this fancy word includes phrases, I’m going to include my least favorite, “tender mercies.”

[pogi]

6 minutes ago, MustardSeed said:

And since this fancy word includes phrases, I’m going to include my least favorite, “tender mercies.”

You are probably one of those evil people who hated the care bears as a kid!

[blarsen]

My favorite is “virtue signaling” which is a chronic pastime of those suffering from TDS.  Prime example may be Robert DeNiro, who uses foul language and nasty accusations against a certain individual in every venue he can find, whether young children are present or not, entirely unconscious of the fact that he is displaying behavior far worse than that of his target.  This is doubly true for those celebs and high profile people/groups who have publicly made murderous and/or violent statements against the same individual, his family or his domicile.

[blarsen]

2 hours ago, The Nehor said:

Equivalent code words for the Right:

”Fake News” (“they” are all lying to you)
”Deep State” (“they” are everywhere working against us)
”RINOs” (traitors)
”mainstream media” (everyone but Fox and a few Internet outlets)
“Trump Derangement Syndrome” (insanity to oppose our chosen one)
“witch hunt” (investigations with no substance even when they generate indictments and guilt pleas)
”hoax” (easy dismissal, they are always lying to you)
”international elites” (Evil liberals in high positions, usually Jews)
”welfare queen” (welfare is theft)
”sovereign citizen” (self identifier to point out that you are batdung crazy)

That is off the top of my head. Fun code words. That you thought one side has a monopoly is pretty laughable.
 

Problem with your definitions of these terms is they’re too black-and-white, if not wholly inaccurate or off-the-mark.