The dark side of vocabulary evolution

Submitted by James Luce (Spain), Aug 1, 2016 at 03:27

Words are normally intended to assist communication because they are supposed to have the same meaning for all speakers of any particular language. Unfortunately, there is a class of words for which this is not the case. I call this class "Emotives", such as "discrimination", "love", "freedom", etc. For example, the word "peace" in the context of the Israel means (if one is an average Arab or Academic) "the obliteration of the Jewish people" but means "the end of invidious hatred of Jews by Arabs, Academics, and others" (if one is not anti-Semitic).

Similarly, the meaning assigned to the words "hate speech" can be "unsupported, ignorant, hurtful statements made against a group" or "any statement that is not in line with what fuzzy-brained people believe". The former is the traditional meaning. The latter is the new Academic meaning. Thus, those who signed the anti-Canary Mission petition and accused Mr. Pipes of hate speech were not "fabricating", but rather were simply demonstrating the fuzziness of what passes for thinking in their brains. Academia has always been against freedom of speech and thought.

For example, the Athenian Academics condemned Socrates to death because he spoke intelligently against "accepted wisdom". Medieval clerical Academics condemned free-thinkers to death by bonfire. Today student and faculty Academics hound politically incorrect professors and drive them from campus. Why? Because to them freedom of speech belongs only to the majority or the powerful. How sad.

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