The Language Game At Play
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (96641)
United States
February 26, 2025 7:57am CST
If you can't win the argument, try kicking your opponent in the groin and make him hopefully think about something else. Hey, sometimes that tactic can work, right?
Isn't that what the Democrats and the media are essentially trying to do when they are suddenly hyper focused on Musk using the R-word in numerous tweets to describe some of his DOGE findings?
Supposedly, he's supposed to say "intellectual disabilities" instead, according to Rosa's Law passed in 2010 by President Barack Obama. Because telling someone they lack intellect is less insulting, right?
Liberal logic on full display.
The truth is, focusing on the R-word serves only one purpose, and that is to distract from what DOGE is actually uncovering. They are not afraid of Musk's language. They are afraid of what's behind it.
Remember, this is the whole purpose of political correctness. It is to shape, redirect, and lead one to another narrative. One preferred over the one that's the problem. It aims to change the conversation and to redirect the focus.
If they can effectively make one outraged over Musk's use of the R-word, maybe you will be less outraged over the ridiculous R-worded spending he's finding. Even more, if they can use his use of the word to diminish his character, it in turn can diminish his credibility, and if effective, can serve to make him seem more absurd than the waste he is finding.
It's a magic trick, folks. Maybe we don't like Musk's words. But what we should dislike more is the misuse of our money. Let's focus on THAT first, and then we can go back and criticize Musk's choice of terms. Because what he is finding matters more than how he describes it.
Or at least it should.
5 people like this
5 responses
@porwest (96641)
• United States
6h
No. It's not. Focus on the point, not the word. THAT'S the point. All focusing on his use of a word is, is to try to create a distraction from the more important underlying thing that is being done. This what Democrats do. They try to change the focus to things that don't matter hoping people will forget about the thing that matters.
And by the way, since when are you worried about what's appropriate? Do you think it's appropriate I be called a racist when I am not? Is it appropriate to call me a cultist? Your side always has something to call someone or a thing and the only time you call out one of them for being inappropriate is when you don't like the thing it refers to?
That's hypocritical.
1 person likes this
@NJChicaa (121578)
• United States
5h
@porwest I don't think you are racist so no I don't think that is appropriate. I also don't think you are a cultist. You aren't one of those mouth-breathing MAGA morons that get tattoos of Trump on your body or follow him around the country like some MAGA version of a Deadhead.
@lilacskies (6046)
• United States
7h
He can't find any other word to use though? Like ridiculous?
1 person likes this
@porwest (96641)
• United States
6h
I mean, here's the thing. It's a word that was a word forever. It only became a "bad" word when someone else decided it was a bad word. Democrats constantly want to change the language, and the reason they do it is to make communication so confusing that most people just decide to shut up. It's a way of controlling speech in a way that makes speech too complicated to even try to speak. Because no one is listening to your point, they are listening for a way to shut your point down when you say the wrong word.
It's the way Musk chooses to speak. It still doesn't diminish what he is saying ultimately, and we ALL know what he means by what he is saying, so criticizing it is simply a way to deny what he is saying and change the subject.
I mean, we've gotten to a point where calling a he a he is dangerous IF that person has a different pronoun than we'd otherwise use. It breaks down communication and changes the basis of what we communicate.
That's bad.
So, yes. He could choose another word. OR, better than that, we can be less petty and more mature and less accepting of changing the meaning of words or being okay with dictating speech.
1 person likes this
@porwest (96641)
• United States
6h
@lilacskies It's just a word that used to not be politically incorrect until someone decided it was and then came up with a new term to replace it. That's all political correctness is about. It's about making the language more complex which makes communication harder to accomplish, and easier to silence.
It's really a goofy thing when you really thing about it. Take other "bad" words. People like to say dadgum for example. It means goddam. So, does saying dadgum if it means goddam change the meaning? If not, how does it make dadgum better somehow? Take a word like fudge. It means the eff word. Does it change the meaning of the word? No. So why use a different word that means the same exact bad thing? If it doesn't change the meaning, calling it something else really serves no purpose other than not to say the word, but express the exact same meaning.
1 person likes this
@lilacskies (6046)
• United States
6h
@porwest So in all in all, that word isn't always derogatory, but can be a word used to emphasize frustration? I think that's what I'm getting here. Correct me if I'm wrong. I've never used that word before, and I'm neither a Democrat nor a Republican.
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (48661)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
12h
Retired? Redundant? Retrograde? Ridiculous? Republican?
1 person likes this
@porwest (96641)
• United States
6h
I'll just go with r*tarded, because that's what he said, and I agree what he's finding is. Call any of what he's finding ignorant, stupid, inept, daft, ridiculous, careless, wreckless, the underlying fact remains that there was little intellect in making the decisions to spend on these things, and so if that fits Barack's preferred term of "intellectual disability," then in their own way so do all these other words, including the R-word.
People don't like the word he is using. It doesn't mean the thing he's using the word on is wrong, or that the use of the word is somehow incorrect.
It also doesn't mean that pointing the word out changes the significance of the underlying argument. It's simply a way to divert attention AWAY from the underlying argument and change the subject.
@lovebuglena (45643)
• Staten Island, New York
8h
They should focus on what he is found and what he is uncovering and not the language he uses.
@LooeyVille (35)
• United States
10h
Same thing with our President. Maybe he uses hyperbole (he does) and exaggerates (he does) but watch his actions and what he's doing and don't get caught up on a grammar issue or a playful exaggeration. Geesh!
1 person likes this
@porwest (96641)
• United States
6h
Like I just said to someone else in response to this post, it's just another form of censorship. If you can make the language confusing and complex, some people will just avoid speaking at all. No one is listening to the point. They are listening for the word they can point to that will shut your point down and change the subject.
1 person likes this
