The Language Game At Play
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (98690)
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.
8 people like this
6 responses
@dgobucks226 (36369)
•
1 Mar
Doesn't Democrats rhyme with "distraction." And like a dog chasing after a thrown ball some people get totally distracted by the media to look elsewhere when the problem is right under their nose.
It is hard for some to accept the truth and admit they made a mistake in judgement.
2 people like this
@BarBaraPrz (49142)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
26 Feb
Retired? Redundant? Retrograde? Ridiculous? Republican?
2 people like this
@BarBaraPrz (49142)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
26 Feb
@porwest So what's the underlying argument?
2 people like this
@porwest (98690)
• United States
27 Feb
@BarBaraPrz The underlying argument is that our country is $37 trillion in debt with $2 trillion in more debt added every single year and it might be a good time to start looking at the books and find out where the money is going. We KNOW there's a ton of waste, fraud, and abuse going on. Let's find it so that we can perhaps keep taxes lower, or at the very least, save taxpayer's some money, and MAYBE even start knocking some of the debt down and get our country's financial house in order.
If we can identify and eliminate the waste, fraud, and abuse, we are better equipped to take a balanced budget approach to future programs and spending.
Every single American right now owes $106,000 each to the federal government. You want that in your pocket or theirs? And if you have to pony up $106,000 of your money, don't you want to at least know where it's going and who is getting it?
1 person likes this
@porwest (98690)
• United States
26 Feb
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.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123451)
• Gainesville, Florida
2 Mar
I think it's interesting that somebody can sit in power (or perceived power) and dictate to the rest of us what words we can and cannot say. When it comes to using the R-word that you are referring to, all my life I've heard people use that word in a variety of ways, some meant as derogatory, but most often meant in other ways. I do feel it is insulting to call an intellectually disabled person the R-word, but I find nothing wrong with using the word to apply to situations or things that are stupid. It would be appropriate to say that putting square tires on a vehicle is r*tarded, but calling a mentally challenged person r*tarded is completely inappropriate. There is a difference.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (123451)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Mar
@porwest I've never really thought of it in those terms, but now that you mention it, you have hit the nail on the head. Censoring us without actually censoring us.
1 person likes this
@porwest (98690)
• United States
9 Mar
@moffittjc Yeah. I mean, if you are made afraid you MIGHT say the wrong thing, maybe you just don't say anything at all.
1 person likes this
@porwest (98690)
• United States
6 Mar
I agree 100%. It goes back to something I refer to often, and that's "it depends on the CONTEXT." What these people are really wanting to do is to make language confusing in the hopes that someone will simply remain silent in fear of saying the wrong word. It's a way of censoring people without actually censoring people.
Expecting one to deliver speech on someone else's terms is of course, NOT free speech.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (45821)
• Staten Island, New York
26 Feb
They should focus on what he is found and what he is uncovering and not the language he uses.
2 people like this
@porwest (98690)
• United States
26 Feb
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 (122177)
• United States
26 Feb
@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.
1 person likes this
@porwest (98690)
• United States
27 Feb
@NJChicaa MOST Trump supporters are none of those things. As for what someone chooses to call me, I really don't care. 9 times out of 10 when names start being tossed around, I get a clear signal they just lost their argument.
As soon as they call me this thing, that thing, or the other...I win.
1 person likes this
