Saturday, July 18, 2020

LOADED TERMS - a Conspiracy Theory / Deconstruction

This is my first ANTI-RANT... I hope you find it worth your time
Here's a conspiracy theory that has an unknown shadowy villain, a new weapon, how it works, how you've been attacked with it, and a simple common sense way to identify the weapon, thus avoiding it, saving yourself and your friends grief. All self-contained in this version 0.01 post.
CONSPIRACY THEORY:
An UNKNOWN SHADOWY VILLAIN is supplying TERM USERs intentionally LOADED TERMS that don't quite fit their common usage, These LOADED TERMS are a cleaving tool.
LOADED TERMS can be interpreted in more than one way, depending on who hears it, and how conditioned to hearing/using it they have become. In the case of those already accustomed to it, it signals virtue or vice. A puzzled reaction flags a possible recruit to either side.
Here are a few examples of LOADED TERMS - with my first crack at defusing them a bit
White Privilege - Lack of Racial Oppression is not a Privilege
Micro Aggression - Feeling slighted does not mean someone is trying to oppress you, nor does it imply overt racism, nor that it was aggressive.
AntiRacist - Anti-Racism is Racism in disguise
Defund the Police - No sane person wants to leave a power vacuum in society.
Black Lives Matter - Of course, but they don't matter more.
Why I see these as LOADED TERMS
If you were trying to convey meaning clearly, none of the terms above would be a natural choice. These are all very poor choices of terms from my relatively neutral (in terns of the left/right scale) position. Now enough of them are out in the public domain that I was able to see a pattern emerging.
Simple Common Sense Solution
If you use these LOADED TERMS... please stop. You're just dividing society for no good reason.
If you are targeted by these LOADED TERMS, choose your own course of action, with all the above in mind. A helpful phrase might be "just what do you mean when you say LOADED TERM"?
If you see these LOADED TERMS used by people you disagree with, remember they probably don't mean it in the way you hear it, and have been co-opted by UNKNOWN SHADOWY VILLAIN

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