mrswdk wrote:jimboston wrote:It’s funny that you choose to focus on me not calling it a ‘lynching’... an somehow this implies I’m ‘condoning’ the act?
It's funny that you often choose to accuse me of putting words in your mouth based on highly pedantic semantic points... and yet you make ridiculous reaches like this.
If my points are pedantic... ignore them.
Words have meanings and their meanings are important.
If we don’t ‘agree’ on the meanings of words then we (as a people) are unable to communicate effectively.
It bothers me when people intentionally misuse and abuse the language... generally this is done for biased propaganda purposes, and often to mislead people by attempting to hit emotional nerves. I don’t like it. (Unless it’s me doing it.)
Seriously though... this is a horrible crime... but it’s NOT a lynching.
Abuse of language bothers me at all levels. A local example...
There’s a plan to put solar panels in a cranberry bog down the street from me. There are people opposed to this plan because they will see the panels from their house and they don’t like it and think it’ll lower the value of their homes. In general I support the plan, because renewable solar energy is good and because the law enabling the panels requires the owners of the bog to maintain the rest of the bog as a working bog. That said, because they’re my neighbors and i understand their view, I was inclined to support their position. Until I saw the name of their group. Their calling themselves the “Residents for Responsible Solar Energy”. The whole purpose of the group is to stop the installation of the solar field! They are not “for” anything! If they kill the plan to install the field, the group goes away. They are not proposing other options, better or more ‘responsible’ options, they are not funding research to make solar installations more ‘responsible’... they aren’t even just working to make this project more ‘responsible’. They simply want to kill the project. The leader asked me if they could put a lawn sign on my property which abuts a cut-through road... I asked about the name and she tried to defend the name... I told her “No”. If they named the group “Residents for Saving the Bog” or “Residents to Stop the Ugly Solar Farm” I would support them with a lawn sign and my vote.... but because they came up with some dumb misleading name I’m opposed.
The name “sounds” better... but it’s misusing the language and I don’t like it.
