NEW YORK — It’s no laughing matter when it comes to how Jerry Seinfeld feels about what he seemingly believes is the lesser of two evils. During a Duke University event on Tuesday, the Emmy-winning comedian compared the Free Palestine movement to the Ku Klux Klan. He even went so far as to say that people who use the phrase “Free Palestine” are worse than the white supremacist group. Seinfeld ...
Yes, and due to usage, “literally” now means “figuratively”, effectively diluting the word and making it useless. Plenty of us aren’t pedophiles but rather pedants and autists who just want to see things be said correctly and clearly. By the new definition, an 18yo having sex with a 17yo would be a pedophile too, but does that really seem accurate?
If we start exaggerating everything then soon we will be as bad as the other side that does it for literally everything as well(am I being serious or hyperbolic with my use of “literally” here? See how it’s unclear?)
Again, tiring to have to say this, but I don’t support pedophiles. I just support clear, accurate language. Call it the horrible thing it is, but call it the right thing. Be accurate in your insults lest you just become “the boy who cried wolf”. Use the word too carelessly and it loses its deservedly negative meaning.
Edit: For example, it would be better to call Jerry a “gross, sleazy pervert who preys on emotionally immature/vulnerable girls to take advantage of them”. You can be plenty insulting, descriptive, AND accurate. “Pervert” was already right there and definitely doesn’t have a positive meaning.
Second Edit: also, “local age of consent” means that in some places where the age is lower, say 13/14, it’s NOT pedophilia by the new definition even if the person had delayed puberty. So some actual pedophilia wouldn’t even be pedophilia with the new definition. It’s an appeal to authority rather than science.
The nature of language is to change over time. Help yourself to internalize that and a lot of these things may become less stressful.
Your attempt to use a non-inflammatory example doesn’t really work: “literally” has meant “exaggeratedly” for at least the past 200 years (likely more, it’s just been used extensively with that meaning for 200y).
If you try to demand that language have strict meaning, it’s just not going to work. Watch:
What’s the definition of “girl”? Do they need to be prepubescent? Pre-postpubescent? Or are you using it in the (gasp, shock) sloppy sense of “a girl or a woman”? You’ve fallen into the exact same pitfall that you were complaining about.
The resolution isn’t to claim that all words have an absolute meaning, but to understand that human language is fluid and extraordinarily context-sensitive.
Cool so if anything can mean whatever we want then you’re a cantaloupe. I just redefined the word to mean people like you. I’m not wrong, language evolves!
Yeah, we can play these stupid games, but we just become dumber in the process.
Creep, pervert, degenerate, abuser… The words are there. We don’t need to co-opt another. All you’ll do is speed up the euphemism treadmill. Once pedophile is meaningless, you’ll have to come up with a whole new word to describe it and just start the process over again. But sure, have fun reinventing words that already exist because your vocabulary is so diminutive that you lack other coherent verbiage to describe how you feel.
Also, don’t we deride the other side for spouting rhetoric to twist things to meet the definitions they want? So why is it ok for us to do the same? This is just the clown meme. You’re following their exact playbook while wearing a red nose and poofy hair and claiming you’re somehow different and superior.
Nah, you’re just a bunch of gaggling morons too. Imbeciles. Mouth breathers. Mentally deficient. See how language can be fun? Look at all these insults I have available to me and not once did I resort to calling you something like a “dragon fucker” just to sound outlandish. I used accurate descriptions of your lack of mental ability and reasoning skills.
Maybe try that?