Re:How Immigration Uncertainty Threatens America’s Tech Domi...
by ghurtado on Friday February 03, 2017 @04:50PM
(#13563642)
None of what you've said would make any sense for anyone who agrees with the list of synonyms for "Obtuse" which I posted in my previous comment.
Those synonyms are from a dictionary, and they are all insults.
So I have to conclude that either:
- You have a radically different definition of "obtuse" which you somehow consider a non-insult and which is non-standard usage
- You're intentionally beating around the bush in order to avoid admitting to understand the difference between an insult and a constructive criticism :)
These are just my two hypothesis, but if you have others, I'd love to hear them.
Re:How Immigration Uncertainty Threatens America’s Tech Domi...
by Chris2048 on Friday February 03, 2017 @06:35PM
(#13564337)
The meaning of a word comes from context, with a thesaurus you are meant to pick the correct word based on intended or derived meaning. The "synonyms" are not synonymous with all interpretations of a word. You can agree on a list of possible synonyms without fixing the definition.
The definition:
1. annoyingly insensitive or slow to understand.
"he wondered if the doctor was being deliberately obtuse"
> So I have to conclude..
hypothesis three: your argument wrt synonyms is incorrect. People may dislike being called "obtuse" but it is not, by standard, an insult.
I think that's right, but without using the insult "stupid", it says the same thing. But an insult has no content, where as this does i.e "you are misunderstanding on purpose"
A constructive criticism can be 'insulting', but this isn't the same as a pure insult.
> "You're intentionally avoiding my question" - objective statement, not an insult and can be discussed further.
Is this not the same as "you're being intentionally obtuse"?
> "You're intentionally being a dumbass" - subjective statement, an insult and a non-sequitur
Because it uses the word "dumbass", which is an insulting label rather than a description of behaviour. But " intentionally obtuse" is a description of behaviour also, and is also as objective as "avoiding my question" in context.
It's only a non-sequitur if you misunderstand what it means in context. I think "you're being intentionally obtuse" would be fairly clear in context?