godlessgrrl Posted January 28, 2006 Share Posted January 28, 2006 Arrrrrgh!!! Okay, so what the fuck is up with wacko Xians manipulating the English language so that words that normally mean one thing suddenly don't mean the same thing anymore???? In the discussion about gay marriage I was reminded of this whole language manipulation thing because of the phrase "homosexual lifestyle" that gets thrown around. What the fuck is "the homosexual lifestyle"??? Do these people even read the damn dictionary? Hell, do they even read??? I mean, I was always taught that lifestyle had to do with things like how much money you have, how you spend it, what you spend your time doing (hobbies, travel, etc.), what you wear, how you present yourself to the world, that sort of thing rolled all into one big package. Sex and sexual orientation might figure into it but in a smaller way - it was more like, do you spend your time blowing wads of cash on gambling and wear flashy clothes and jet set around the world? Or do you spend your time paying bills, going to your boring job every day, and taking a road trip in your Winnebago once a year? So this "lifestyle" shit is bullshit. It's like the fucking "homosexual agenda", or the "feminist agenda", or the whatever agenda. Nobody has a fucking agenda, people, or we'd all be a lot more organized than we are! <lol> Groups and individuals have goals but this agenda nonsense, jeez. Like world domination is some fucking gay conspiracy. (Jeez, I could only hope!) Oh wow, and don't even get me started on the language around the abortion debate. Heh, nobody's immune from language manipulation on that one. "Pro-life"? BULLSHIT. How about we get honest and start calling pro-life people um... something else, something more accurate. Maybe "anti-choice" or "anti-abortion" or "anti-sex", depending. Fuck, I'll bet that if more people on both sides of the fence started calling themselves "anti-abortion" - because you can find folks who don't really go for abortion on both sides... wellllll, shit, what would happen then? Who knows, actually. Maybe people would work together to reduce abortion sensibly, combining various tactics and methods. Maybe they'd just find something else to fight about. Whatever. But "pro-life" - my ass. Most people who are pro-life aren't really - their position stops at birth. After that they don't give a flying fuck about anybody's life. Until the end of their life comes and somebody dares to try to pull the plug on them - then watch out! Here come the Life Police! Unless, of course, the person's on Death Row - then it's fine to off them. WTF??? Are you interested in actual life, or not?? Are we talking quality, or quantity here?? I don't fucking care either way, I just wish people'd be more honest and stop hiding behind deceptive labels. Pro-life? No way. Pro-existence? Okay, I can live with that. Pro-being-alive-but-who-cares-how-good-your-life-really-is?? Bingo! Holy crap, and how many different definitions are there for the word "Christian"?? Or the word "cult"?? And what about this "ungodly" crap??? ARRRRGH! I don't get it!!! Actually, though, I kind of do. I think people overall know that language matters. As much as I've heard folks complain about how "unnecessary" it is to be gender neutral in language, and issues like that, it's wrong. Language is strong, powerful, it's the primary way humans communicate with each other - and if you can redefine words, that's a very powerful tool. The pen really is mightier than the sword. So it doesn't really surprise me at all to see specialized groups adopt specialized meanings for different words. They do it to get a point across, to create labels as a starting point for understanding, or to make sure that the words they use invoke an emotional response. Calling a pro-choice person a "murderer" sure isn't anything other than inflammatory, and I don't think it's meant to be anything but. Same thing with calling a pro-life person "sexist dickweed." It's all a part of the game. You redefine the enemy to be someone you can keep on hating. Thus the argument goes on forever. Oh yeah, and I do realize I've been doing some broad-brushing here, but this is a rant, the purpose isn't really accuracy. It's emotional steam release. So um, thanks for reading, if you did. And now back to our regularly scheduled um... mellowness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ nivek ♦ Posted January 28, 2006 Share Posted January 28, 2006 gwennie.. Manipulation of the language spoken is always been a tool of tyrants and kings, or those wishing to replace same. One of the few *social contracts* I concur with is the necessity of a common spoken language. Seems worldwide some form of *english* is becoming the standard, folks who may not speak as a first tounge are learning to compete and live with those who do. What we find is tht by twisting meanings and useages, we can confuse and cause second guessing in the things we are holding as *truth*. An example in my realm is how the anti-self protection groups have managed to manipulate the term assault weapons. they have manged to make any menacing "black gun" of any type a "para-military milita killing machine, useful only for killing babies, groups of inocent students and politicians!!!" (Mine tend to be pretty damn sedate, williung to sit in locker until picked up and brought to range or event.. ) Words and meanings change as time and societies do. What we can d is teach those who will replace us what we'd like them to understand, ground them in what we hold fast and dear to. When it is time to make decisions based on *words*, they will have a foundation to work from. kevinL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amanda Posted January 28, 2006 Share Posted January 28, 2006 I think people overall know that language matters. As much as I've heard folks complain about how "unnecessary" it is to be gender neutral in language, and issues like that, it's wrong. Language is strong, powerful, it's the primary way humans communicate with each other - and if you can redefine words, that's a very powerful tool. The pen really is mightier than the sword. So it doesn't really surprise me at all to see specialized groups adopt specialized meanings for different words. They do it to get a point across, to create labels as a starting point for understanding, or to make sure that the words they use invoke an emotional response. Calling a pro-choice person a "murderer" sure isn't anything other than inflammatory, and I don't think it's meant to be anything but. Same thing with calling a pro-life person "sexist dickweed." It's all a part of the game. You redefine the enemy to be someone you can keep on hating. Thus the argument goes on forever. Gwen... It may not be so much the language, as the 'thinking'. Of course, these words do reflect their thinking. Don't you get the feeling that some people were raised in an ivory tower somewhere else? Do they really know what is going on in the real world? It seems that instead of sitting up there on their own pedestal dictating how life should be, they should try coming down to reality and living it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathuria Posted January 28, 2006 Share Posted January 28, 2006 "homosexual lifestyle" = fundies have to believe that homosexuality is a choice and can be cured by Christ = "we must maintain our ignorance at all costs." And don't worry about the broad brush -- I got a big kick out of your Pro-Life rant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted January 28, 2006 Share Posted January 28, 2006 I agree. I hate how "cult" is redefined to describe any religion that isn't mainstream Christianity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godlessgrrl Posted January 29, 2006 Author Share Posted January 29, 2006 Thanks for the replies so far. Yeah, Amanda, I think I understand the "ivory tower" thing. Kind of like sometimes it seems like people get detached from reality or something and the weirdass definitions don't really help. Labels and definitions can provide a starting point, but they can also be limiting. If two people trying to talk can't understand what vocabulary the other person is using, then there's no way to really comprehend each other. But then, sometimes I'm not so sure that people really want to understand each other, most of the time. Especially when you enter into the realm of willful ignorance. And one of the painful things sometimes when dealing with or listening to truly close-minded people talk about stuff is to remember that I used to be like that when I was Xian, and it was just such a small space to be in. Small, and often wrong. So I suppose it's part frustration and part pity sometimes. Heh - cathuria, glad you got a kick out of the rant. I think I get the line of reasoning too - the whole "being gay is a choice" thing. It's the whole "being gay is a choice and our religion says it's an abomination, an evil choice, so anybody who participates in that kind of choice shouldn't be rewarded for their evil behavior, so therefore we shouldn't support any initiatives or laws or whatnot that make it easier for gays to have ordinary lives like the rest of us." Argh, sometimes I just want to reach through my computer screen and smack the other person on the other end and tell them to SAY what they MEAN, dammit! Except I realize, too, that someone calling me "ungodly" or someone saying something like "life begins at conception" or whatever is probably saying what they mean, just they've been given a different handbook of life than I have. Anyway. Yeah. Addendum to the rant, I guess. Thanks again for reading and commenting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lycorth Posted January 29, 2006 Share Posted January 29, 2006 I agree. I hate how "cult" is redefined to describe any religion that isn't mainstream Christianity. Ditto that - anything is a cult except those who blindly follow a horrible book full of lies and sick garbage, selling their lives to it and destroying the lives of others in the process. Gwen, they also, I think, manipulate language to conceal their hatreds. "Homosexual lifestyle" is their way of saying "demented faggot behavior", just that it would be a crime to say the latter. It's just a way of sanitizing hate-speech, or just covering it up. They know what they are saying and so do their flocks of sheeple, all this does is permit them to skirt the law. If it weren't illegal, they'd just use the most profane, crude language they could muster to better hammer home their message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amanda Posted January 29, 2006 Share Posted January 29, 2006 Ditto that - anything is a cult except those who blindly follow a horrible book full of lies and sick garbage, selling their lives to it and destroying the lives of others in the process. I think they're scared. If we could just get rid of the concept of an eternal hell floating in a 5th demension somewhere, that an all powerful being is going to throw you away into it if you don't do what has been propagated as a criteria to survive for many years. It is so sad that people ACTUALLY believe that's true! If we could get rid of the mentality that some will end up in a better place than someone else... I think that will have a tremendous effect on society! People believe what you want... however, NO ONE is better than anyone else! EQUAL respect for each other is all we can ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samurai Tailor Posted January 29, 2006 Share Posted January 29, 2006 The homosexual agenda differs based upon whom you ask. http://www.bettybowers.com/homoagenda.html http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/99/Sep/agenda.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-COG Posted January 29, 2006 Share Posted January 29, 2006 ..."life begins at conception"... They've changed it now. I saw a photo of some protesters, and their signs said "Life begins at fertilization". Well, now that clears things up. The art of semantics in action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel Posted January 29, 2006 Share Posted January 29, 2006 I agree. I hate how "cult" is redefined to describe any religion that isn't mainstream Christianity. Ditto that - anything is a cult except those who blindly follow a horrible book full of lies and sick garbage, selling their lives to it and destroying the lives of others in the process. Gwen, they also, I think, manipulate language to conceal their hatreds. "Homosexual lifestyle" is their way of saying "demented faggot behavior", just that it would be a crime to say the latter. It's just a way of sanitizing hate-speech, or just covering it up. You are SO right. I remember when I was a pentecostal flake, I had a harsh opinion of homosexuals but it was always masked under the "lifestyle" type thing. Since I have woke up and see things for how they are, my opinions have changed. But it is true, they try to pretty everything up to cover up what they are really feeling....you might say they are rather wimpish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godlessgrrl Posted January 29, 2006 Author Share Posted January 29, 2006 They've changed it now. I saw a photo of some protesters, and their signs said "Life begins at fertilization". Well, now that clears things up. The art of semantics in action. WTF?? <-----speechless at the idiocy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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