I think there is an ongoing war against the proper use of precise language.
I could see that. But I could also see how we could come up with vastly different examples of this war.
I would not be so quick to believe what 'people' say. 'People' who really are just trolls will say anything and everything at different times just to create noise. Some good points, some bad, but lots of noise.
I don't even like to fully buy into 'people' being 'people' online, because it is free and easy to make trolls, and we know they have been weaponized against us to stop conversations from being able to happen.
1) don't want to put their ideas forth where they can be challenged - hence hiding behind "fighting racism" (meaningless phrase) rather than simply give the concrete belief of what should come from their choice of action and explain *why* they think that choice of action is right.
Eg. Different groups have different ways that they want to effect the world, but their mission statements are always leave you wondering what their actual position is.
I don't think that 'fighting racism' is a meaningless phrase at all.
I could have agreed if you said 'overused'. Or used to trigger people into not having a conversation. But not meaningless. Racism exists, I have witnessed it many times in real life, and it is always worth standing up against.
I think you fall for the trolling of these groups that are being amplified in specific ways to make people like yourself confused about what their message actually is because you are getting a cherry picked narrative about them or specific groups that are not representative of the movements they are branded onto.
2) people don't want to have to attack other's arguments directly so they use mushy meaningless words like racist which are supposed to illicit an *emotional* response and to which you are not supposed to be able to defend against - how can you defend yourself against charges if the charges themselves are not defined.
I disagree here.
1. Trolls/people like to toss out incendiary words like 'racist' to train others seeing that post to jump to calling people 'racist' when a slightly different definition would work better. Because it will illicit that emotional response further hardening their bubbles of information.
2. Is correctly used during those times when people are actually saying racist shit (even if that person is not aware that they are tricked into thinking it wasn't racist).
3) I think that proper use of precise language at a young age is one of the building blocks for being able to effect the change you want in the world, to be able to become a doer rather than follower. To writ, how can you change the world if you can't begin to describe what's wrong and how you will fix it.
I think this is dangerously close to falling into the racist/classist/xenophobic rhetoric that people use to tell people they should talk better.
People have all sorts of differences in their ability to talk well. This blanket statement you make is just discriminatory.
"Ending racism" for example is not a goal, there's no specific end game and no route to get there. Reducing economic or educational disparities are goals however and people can disagree on how to get there and can weigh the various merits of different choices.
I have no idea what you are talking about here, because I don't think I have ever said that the goal should be to 'end racism', that is as naive as saying there is no racism. It exists and is not something that will just end. But I would agree that ending the impacts of racism in our society is a valid goal albeit at the end of the day just more populous messaging if it is not attached with very real actions to help reduce racisms impact.
Before I go further, I want to say this is decidedly non partisan. Even though I picked racism as an example this could apply to anything and these are tools used by anyone that wants power over another.
ok.
And so to answer your question
- yes, because you cannot argue with someone who doesn't actually want to get anywhere with their arguments (beyond some undefined thing is bad or good). Many (maybe even most) don't even know how to describe what they want and how to get it, and so there's nothing to do but get the same repeated insults thrown at you with no explanation of how they even fit.
I see you respond to a lot of trolls that don't actually offer much in the form of a coherent post, instead of just ignoring them so that you don't have to wade through all the nonsense. And I think is what makes you (at least it seems like it) defend your positions instead of trying to understand what other (actual people not trolling you) are trying to help you see.
I agree that I think this is what hardens the false logic that is implanted into the bullshit narratives. Because the more often you repeat something (even though you can know it is false), the more you trick your brain into believing it is reality, when it is not.