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Comment by weasel_words | Hacker News Reader

"Whenever someone like me gets called a "white supremacist" for defending someone's right to post a job opportunity without being subject to attack, it devalues a term whose meaning is indispensable to retain so that genuine instances of racism can be identified and rightfully addressed."

Wow, this is basically what all us "crazy alt-right" people have been worried was going to happen since day 1.

Second and third order consequences are not always that hard to foresee.

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They called too many people "racist" and so it became mundane. They had to up the ante to "white supremacist." It's become nothing more than a dog whistle.

Heh, I wonder about the relation to the ever increasing usage of superlatives and exaggeration in advertising and media. There was a short discussion on it yesterday and it got me thinking.

Media/news used to be pretty dry/neutral when reporting anything, and old advertising was more focused on practical aspects of the product it seems.

Now it's all OUTRAGE, person 1 SLAMS new proposal to make DRUGS more accessible to CRIMINALS!

So buy our INCREDIBLE super phone, it's not a phone, it's A FULL INTELLIGENT BEING in your pocket with the GREATEST features IN THE WORLD!

This isn't an entry level janitor position, you are a CLEANING MANAGER, you will be FIGHTING MICROBES EVERY DAY LIKE A HERO, so apply now by telling us WHAT EXCITES YOU ABOUT THIS JOB. An interview with HR and the CTO is mandatory.

Is it any wonder words are losing their meaning? Tbf, someone's probably going to come up with new ones :)

Isn't that what they call the euphemism treadmill?

What is the secret meaning of "white supremacist" and who are the only ones that hear that meaning when the term is used?

EDIT: ok. Yea I agree the term is used very broadly. I thought something else was being said.

"Proletariat" and "bourgeoisie", respectively. Identity politics becomes real easy to understand when you recognize that the supposed 'good guys' are bourgeoisie (and their apologists) trying to take self-sufficient peoples and reduce them to proles, and blaming those peoples for all the things the bourgeoisie(-apologists) do themselves. In other worlds, all identity politics is projection on the part of the perpetrators against one group of victims for the purposes of dividing and conquering their victims, lest they rise up against them and string them up.

I dont think the Palestinians are mad at Jews for being bourgeoisie. The identity issue is at the heart of that conflict, its not a proxy for class. If the Palestinians had more money they wouldn't get Israeli citizenship. I guess some identity politics could be proxies for class struggle though.

Edit: That makes literally no sense earlking. If Israel Palestine is a struggle between two bourgeoise then it isn't a class struggle. Its an ethnic struggle like I said above.

The issue at hand in Syria-Palestina is who owns the land and who can be there. It's one group of bourgeoisie slugging it out with the other. That's why it doesn't look like a class issue to you.

The secret meaning is "anyone I disagree with and wish to hush up", and the ones who hear are anyone who also wishes the interlocutor would hush up

Both things can be true. The alt-right is batshit crazy, but "woke" keyboard warriors on Twitter are also assholes.

This is a crucial distinction and I don't get it why it's so hard for people to understand it. Both extremes of the spectrum are toxic and at the same time have the "if you're not with us, you are against us" attitude. A stable central position is needed to protect the society from extremes.

And if you try and explain how throwing around labels dilutes the meaning of words, you'll get told "languages evolve" and "stop being a prescriptivist".

They don't care. Words are just a means to an end, a compliance tool that doesn't have to make any sense as long as it works on enough people, and enough people are willing to pat them on the head for repeating them. You're not talking to people who deal in principles, which is also why they're eerily unmoved by even the most glaring double-standards.

You can think of it as a difference in vocabulary.

What some phrase as "I disagree" other say "you're racist!".

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