How did that statement make you feel? How did you interpret it? You may have thought it was geared toward race, intelligence, or whatever. When I wrote that I was thinking of the military. "I'm am your superior officer". The point that I am trying to make is that things can be taken out of context and warped into becomimg a new reality. There is a word that literally means " a bundle of sticks", but has been taken out of context and has been used to be hateful towards gay men. " Female dog in heat ", word has also been taken out of context to be hateful to women, depending on the situation. But my issue is that what is happening is ignorance is being bred. Someone that I was friends with once called a gay man a hateful word that I was talking about earlier. I asked him what did it mean and he told me "gay" but in a negative sense. He was shocked when I told him that the original intended use was for bundle of sticks. Dykes are used for irrigation or as trenches for during warfare but some people actually don't know that and believe it to be a hateful word for lesbians. The ignorance also breeds violence. You call someone a term and they don't know the true meaning then they will be offended and may feel the need to defend themselves by whatever means. Misinterpretation or reinterpretation can lead to death of nations. Do you feel that there is truth in my words, support the new usage of words,or that you have done it yourself and have caused no harm? Speak your mind.
I do believe that ignorance does lead to vilolence, hence the gang problem. I also believe in the internet world like forums, messengers ect. Things can be taken in the wrong context because we cannot se facial and body language to gage what a person is feeling when they write, well type something. I for example put a ! behind most of my post in other places and relaize now it could really mean something negative like being stern ect, to the other people who read the post. great post and question. Made me think and revaluate how I do post or type. =)
Kittymeow always comes up with the best topics in debate it <3 This one didn't really stir up a lot with me. How can superiority be judged? Everyone has such a different stance on it. I'm not sure I can effectively put into words how I see it. On one hand, I'd like to say I feel everyone is equal, but I know that's not true. Everyone is born equal, and it's the decisions we make that decide which way we go. I believe how people act, treat others, their opinions, actions and ideas all go into what makes them 'superior' and 'inferior'. It's interesting because when I added those words to the end of that sentence, it made me think twice about what i had written. When I read this topic I immediately thought of being inferior meaning 'not being your equal'. I would never call anybody superior or inferior, but I would say if someone wasn't their equal. I think for me it's more about people being on different levels of intellect, high thought, etc and no one level is particularly superior or inferior to any other. This is a curly one.
lol i didn't think much of it. i thought it'd be some sort of accomplishment you had, that you just wanted to show off :lol:
Probably didn't affect me because I saw it was in the Debate it! section. So yeah, read the thread before I jumped into any conclusions. I think our language has changed quite drastically over the years. "bundle of sticks" may have been a hateful word for gay, but then again, gay used to mean "cheery", but now has homosexual connotations. There are hateful words for gay, but there are also words that aren't hateful, that also mean gay, like queer. Camp can be taken out of context, if I call a guy camp, it just means that they're acting effeminate, but someone might interpret it as gay. People do take things out of context, but once they've learned what that statement actually means, they then can choose to act accordingly. But yes, some people may choose to take offence even from not knowing what it means, it could have been the tone the other person used, or the look on that persons face. I've used the example in another thread, but it was when I was in primary school, and my teacher called my socks priceless, which I thought meant nothing. She meant the opposite. That was an example of misinterpreting something due to ignorance of the meaning. As for taking things out of context, people will intentionally do that. By taking a small fragment of a whole paragraph, it can be used for the opposite of what it was originally intended for. Okay, if I'm visiting a grave, and a man says "He is not here ... Come, see the place where they layed him" I could interpret it as me visiting the wrong grave, and being pointed to where the real grave was. If you will read Matthew 28:6 it will tell of the two Mary's that went to the grave of Jesus, and a man telling them that Jesus had been resurrected. As for misinterpretation or re-interpretation leading to the death of nations, I would hope that our countries' politicians would be more careful in the way they speak, and put some thought into preparing their speeches. I think the new usage of words is inevitable, and it's probably up to us to learn the new words so that you can't take things out of context. Personally I do support the use of new words, we should give them a fair go. Not that i'm condoning using bad words, but we certainly don't speak in 'ye olde english' these days
The statement made me think automatically about somebody who uses the words that you are talking about. If you use derogative words against someone else I think it is that person making themselves feel superior. I just started a course in English Language and I find it funny how so many insulting words started out as being harmless. They are all normally short and quite angry sounding anyway but in the UK we use "bundle of sticks" as a cigarette though it is used against gay men as well. I think a problem with words is when they are allowed to be used in the minority but not by anyone else. By making a word taboo people just want to say it more it's human nature "you can't do this" usually leads to I can and I will.
When I listen or read on the web phrases like "I'm superior to you", I move as far as possible, 'cause I think they're meaningless and made by people that don't know what is a real discussion and aren't able to talk 'politically correct'. Spoiled people that don't know the real meaning of life and didn't ever met real problems. Alas I know a lot of people like these ._. and one of the best quotation that comes in my mind is: "The world will let no fame of theirs endure; both justice and compassion must disdain them; let us not talk of them, but look and pass." Then I don't know the new usage of words you talk about... 'cause I'm not english and didn't seen the same phenomenon here... but ignorance is everywhere and it's quite impossible to defeate it -_-'