Tooting Carmen
09-27-2014, 03:38 PM
Ayn Rand, not a philosopher I usually agree with, defined 'anti-concepts' as "irrational, unusable words defined to replace or obliterate some legitimate concept".
Here are some modern ones I hate:
COMMUNITY - means either a population (usually immigrant/ethnic minority) or a vague, fuzzy feeling of people knowing each other in their neighbourhood/town/city. Either way, it is a vacuous word subject to abuse.
CULTURE - in a similar way to COMMUNITY, it refers to the (real or perceived) values and behaviours of what are usually immigrant and ethnic minority groups. Another definition, which is also stupid, means 'pattern', such as 'culture of abuse', 'culture of silence', 'culture of hatred' etc.
EXPERTS - people brought onto the news to state the obvious. For example, 'bereavement experts' who are asked how a family must be feeling after a relative has died of an illness.
INAPPROPRIATE/UNACCEPTABLE - twee, bourgeois terms to mean anyone who doesn't conform to what are often petty rules and conventions. Increasingly, they also mean remarks perceived to give offence to people defined as COMMUNITIES.
REFORM - cuts to public services and mass privatisations.
TRAGEDY/COLLATERAL DAMAGE - a military operation that kills lots of (usually non-white) civilians.
Here are some modern ones I hate:
COMMUNITY - means either a population (usually immigrant/ethnic minority) or a vague, fuzzy feeling of people knowing each other in their neighbourhood/town/city. Either way, it is a vacuous word subject to abuse.
CULTURE - in a similar way to COMMUNITY, it refers to the (real or perceived) values and behaviours of what are usually immigrant and ethnic minority groups. Another definition, which is also stupid, means 'pattern', such as 'culture of abuse', 'culture of silence', 'culture of hatred' etc.
EXPERTS - people brought onto the news to state the obvious. For example, 'bereavement experts' who are asked how a family must be feeling after a relative has died of an illness.
INAPPROPRIATE/UNACCEPTABLE - twee, bourgeois terms to mean anyone who doesn't conform to what are often petty rules and conventions. Increasingly, they also mean remarks perceived to give offence to people defined as COMMUNITIES.
REFORM - cuts to public services and mass privatisations.
TRAGEDY/COLLATERAL DAMAGE - a military operation that kills lots of (usually non-white) civilians.