Woke - adjective

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by mathman, Mar 15, 2022.

  1. mathman Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,002
    'woke' as an adjective seems to have political implications. Are there other words where right versus left affects usage?
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    18,935
    'snowflake'
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    18,935
    Also:

    'facts'
    'stolen'
    'patriotic'
    'insurrection'
    'law'
    'treason'
    'competent'
    'compassion'
    'humanity'
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2022
    geordief likes this.
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. mathman Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,002
    How do left and right distinguish?
     
  8. billvon Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    21,635
    "alternative facts"
    "critical race theory"
    "censorship"
    "freedom"
    "socialism"
    "communism"
     
  9. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    18,935
    From where I'm standing, left seems to adhere to the standard dictionary definitions, whereas the right seems to use whatever definitions suit their narrative (which often seems aligned with engendering a long-term distrust of the governmental process in general).

    For example, the most obvious one of note is the use of the term "facts" (as in "alternative facts").

    The left seem to promulgate a definition of the word "fact" that aligns with "things that are objectively true", whereas
    the right seem to adhere to a definition of the word "fact" that aligns with "things we would like to be true and would be like to convince you are true too".
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2022
    sideshowbob and cluelusshusbund like this.
  10. billvon Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    21,635
    In 2004, reporter Ron Susskind interviewed a GWB administration aide. He wrote:

    The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'.

    The aide made it clear that "reality based community" was intended as a snub, as a description of people who hew to reality rather than the empire's new creations of fact.
     
  11. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    7,057
    "You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?'"
    -- George Bernard Shaw (the serpent in Back to Methuselah)
     

Share This Page