One of Sully’s readers argues Obama’s unmockable because he’s just so genuine. But mocking Obama is trivial.
Category Archives: language
Tribalism
Posted by Chris Hallquist on January 28, 2009
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Richard Chappell argues we can keep using the word “tribalism,” even if some people think it’s racist. Further comment: using the word “tribalism” as a bad word isn’t racist, it’s misanthropic. It’s saying that one of the oldest human social institutions, except maybe and maybe not even the family, is fundamentally evil. Personally, I’m okay [...]
Relativism watch
Posted by Chris Hallquist on January 16, 2009
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This post isn’t about relativism itself, but about one current use of the term: to refer not to the belief that morality is just a matter of the norms of a culture, but to refer to the belief that both sides in a conflict have done nasty stuff (or whatever). The first is crazy, because [...]
In defense of Orwell, take II
Posted by Chris Hallquist on January 14, 2009
2 comments
Okay, so AnlamK has asked me to read a Language Log criticism of Orwell’s _Politics and the English Language_titled “Orwell’s Liar” and respond. After doing a search of my own blog, I realized I had gotten into some of the same arguments with a different Language Log writer four months ago. When I first sat [...]
What the fuck is uncivility?
Posted by Chris Hallquist on January 14, 2009
8 comments
A couple days ago PZ put up a post on the over-done issue of “civility” in the blogging world. I had to pause and wonder what exactly people are complaining about. I read through the first hundred comments. This being PZ’s place, few were in defense of civility, but on the few there were: The [...]