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A comment on The moral case against equity language. Parent comment

Re:The moral case against equity language by roughly on Thursday March 02, 2023 @03:57PM (#35001970)
That's not the theory of change at play here. You're rejecting a straw man.

As to the rest of it: "Officer, arrest that man" is a series of incantations that affect the material world.

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Re:The moral case against equity language by scarmig on Thursday March 02, 2023 @04:06PM (#35002070)
I can say that right now, and nothing happens. The words aren't the causal elements here changing the world; it's the referants and power hierarchies that do.

The proper analogy would be thinking that requiring saying "Officer, detain-in-an-official-capacity that man!" instead would somehow fix police violence.

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Re:The moral case against equity language by roughly on Thursday March 02, 2023 @04:08PM (#35002098)
> I can say that right now, and nothing happens. The words aren't the causal elements here changing the world; it's the referants and power hierarchies that do.

And you think this is something that’s not understood among those pushing for linguistics changes?

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Re:The moral case against equity language by jimbokun on Friday March 03, 2023 @01:31AM (#35006502)
I think that.

I think those people distract and soothe themselves from their inability to enact change with linguistic games.

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