Watching a minor celebrity fall from grace recently brings something to mind.
Perverting the meaning of words, people orchestrate the reaction they desire.
Consider the word "child".
Anyone who has developed their secondary sexual characteristics is not, by definition, a child. They may not necessarily be an adult. They may be a "sub-adult". Still not a child by any means.
This isn't about what is, or is not, OK to do to them or with them.
But by using a word incorrectly, your feelings have been manipulated. Based on those feelings, your thinking has been directed. You are guided where someone else wishes you to go.
Watch how many other ways this tactic is used to fool you. I see it in discussions of liberty, anarchy, guns, candidates, drugs, and more. By being aware of how you are being manipulated, maybe you can avoid some of it.
Or, maybe you can use the trick to your advantage.
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Not unlike the word "rape".
ReplyDeleteThis word is now a legal term that describes any sexual acts between people deemed not-yet-human, i.e., "children" under the age of 18, not *just* forcible insertion of objects into unwelcoming orifices. Good for prosecutors, not good at all for victims of actual rape.
And so
Not only that, but also sexual acts between people when one later changes her mind about it having been a good idea.
DeleteOr, non-sexual acts that one person takes sexually and becomes offended.
Or words. Or a glance. Or... whatever one person decides to be offended over.