Friday, November 16, 2018

Winning isn't permitted under their rules



You have probably noticed this, but in case you haven't: you can't win.

No matter what you talk about someone will say you are using the word wrong; even that you are a fool or a tool for using the word as you do.

From freedom and liberty, to government and state, anarchist and statist, and beyond. I've found this to be the case anytime I discuss a topic which is important and controversial (along the statist/anarchist divide, especially).

Which is why I try to make sure to explain how I use a word, and why I use it the way I'm using it.

But you still can't win. Because then you'll be accused of making words mean what you want them to mean instead of what they "really" mean. Even worse is the crime of coining your own words.

But, I don't care.

You can't win... if you play by their rules.

To me, winning is living in liberty. At least as much as possible when surrounded by people who believe in, and support, aggressive institutions which insist you aren't allowed to opt out. They are the real losers, no matter what they believe about themselves.

The fact that they try to redefine "winning" so it's exclusive to them doesn't change that.

--

I'm taking tomorrow off for personal reasons.



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Reminder: I could really use some help.
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This blog is my job.
YOU get to decide if I get paid.

4 comments:

  1. Excellent observation, Kent, thank you.

    Archists have done very well in changing the meaning of words to suit themselves. I first noticed it in the case of "inflation", now widely seen as a price rise instead of its proper meaning, a rise in the quantity of money. The latter vanished from all dictionaries I know except the 1934 Oxford Concise, which I keep on my shelf despite its very tattered state.

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    Replies
    1. I had a really old dictionary I used on occasion to look up how definitions have changed over time. It was amazing to me how definitions seem to have always changed to legitimize authoritarianism and the state.

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  2. reject "their" rules.
    "they" are not my rule master.
    i follow my rules.

    "they" are free to be as wrong as they choose to be.

    ReplyDelete