tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post8650363329048371362..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: How Much Does a Word Matter?Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-15607057924021032342015-08-29T16:58:55.323-04:002015-08-29T16:58:55.323-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-84944875248190554042015-08-27T18:33:01.809-04:002015-08-27T18:33:01.809-04:00I'm convinced that this sort of behavior is a ...I'm convinced that this sort of behavior is a product of people feeling helpless and desperately attempting to find something, anything, which they feel they can control or influence.<br /><br />That's actually a pretty typical psychological response to extreme trauma such as losing a child in a car accident, which seems to be a theme among the members of this movement. I suspect they're somewhat in denial about what happened - they can't accept that they lost their children to forces beyond their control, to something as "impersonal" and "meaningless" as chance or misfortune. They want to assign blame to something, anything at all.<br /><br />They can't stop cars from crashing, so they look at crash safety. But crash safety is already pretty stellar, and it's being continually studied and improved upon about as quickly as is possible. There's nothing much about the concrete, practical aspects of car crashes and how we deal with them that we could meaningfully improve upon at the moment.<br /><br />So they turn their attention to less concrete matters. They get upset about word usage - they don't like thinking that they lost a child to an "accident". And yet, there's nothing really wrong with the word choice of "accident" being used regarding car crashes.<br /><br />So they have to strain to distort the usage, claiming that the word "accident" somehow<b><i>implies</i></b> - not means, mind you! - that the people who employ it view the events they are describing as unavoidable, that "nothing could have been done to prevent" them.<br /><br />Which is of course pure rubbish, but at this point it's the first half-decent thing for these people to cling to and complain about - it's the first scrap of control they've managed to seize upon.<br /><br />It doesn't matter that they have to stretch the meaning of the word to find something to complain about. It doesn't matter that the word's usage has no demonstrable negative effect on anything. It doesn't matter that the word getting changed would accomplish absolutely nothing of consequence. What matters is they feel like they finally can influence something - anything at all.<br /><br />They can raise a stink and maybe get other people to do what they want. That alone is enough to motivate them; to allow them to ignore the logical holes in their argument; to treat anyone who doesn't completely agree with them as an enemy; to make them feel like they're accomplishing something important and meaningful, rather than something trivial and senseless.<br /><br />Meanwhile, everyone else is going to keep saying "car accident" because it's a perfectly accurate and acceptable thing to say, and it is in no way mutually exclusive with finding fault or taking preventative measures.<br /><br />Sadly, the logic of it all doesn't matter. Some people are simply dedicated to raise a stink, and no amount of reason will change their minds. All we can do is get on with our lives and ignore their nonsense.<br /><br />It's ultimately a wasted effort anyway - if self righteous, indignant idiocy couldn't drive us to start saying "Freedom Fries" instead of "French Fries" even with the power of blind, zealous nationalism behind it, there's no real chance of this movement succeeding.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.com