Re:The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikel...
by douche on Thursday July 21, 2016 @02:33PM
(#12138956)
> Words mean things, and that's what those words mean
I want to put this on the biggest billboard I can find, or put it in Nazca lines across the surface of the moon, so maybe we'll remember. Language lawyering is profoundly useless, and I've no patience with it.
Re:The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikel...
by winter_blue on Thursday July 21, 2016 @03:12PM
(#12139267)
I completely and utterly disagree with you; language and word choice matters a lot: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/06/wol...
There is a lot of implied sub-communication that comes with word choice in human languages. Only an idiot or a robot would take everything by its literal meaning.
Re:The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikel...
by douche on Thursday July 21, 2016 @03:40PM
(#12139461)
We'll agree to disagree. The linked article is a pretty load of horse-hockey, in my opinion.
If everyone is free to redefine words to mean whatever they damn well please, then it is impossible to have clear, effective discussions, because you get wound up wrangling about definitions - as we do habitually here, talking past each other.
Re:The Strange Politics of Peter Thiel, Trump’s Most Unlikel...
by winter_blue on Friday July 22, 2016 @09:18AM
(#12143301)
I know you don't agree, but to make my point further, this great article just came out today: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/why-demo...
No, it's an accurate, dry, legal characterisation of someone present in the country illegally, much like referring to someone who has murdered someone else as 'a murderer,' or to someone who has shoplifted as 'a shoplifter.'
I'm actually philosophically inclined towards completely open borders (although I have some deep concerns about what that does to community & culture), but an alien who is present illegally is truly an illegal alien. Words mean things, and that's what those words mean.