this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
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Me too. Thanks.

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If you struggle with figurative speech I can try and avoid using it but otherwise, you don’t score points by being deliberately obtuse.

ik i was just being obtuse because i thought it was funny, and ironic. It's the internet, nobody takes anything seriously here.

Bullshit double standards. You’re asserting that arguing over the definition of a word is “declaring themselves a martyr of etymology”, but only when I do it – you get a free pass. You’re asserting that saying something is a slur is being “arbiter of what slurs are”, but only when I do it – the “people around you” get a free pass.

i mean if you look at like i'm defining myself as the right party, and you as the wrong party here, than sure, but that's not what im doing i'm just pointing out that you can define things differently, and that claiming a word to have any specific set of definition is not ideal, especially when generalizing the usage of the word. Plus i will note my explicit contextual usage of the word, which i mentioned numerous times, which makes it much harder for it to be the slur, because obviously, if you just used the slur against the group it was directed at, that's basically just a slur.

Also i would recommend that you read into my funny word usage, i'm just being dramatic to play it up. Words aren't that complicated and they aren't a big deal, saying anything otherwise is rather silly. Unless you're making a new one i suppose. Also i merely referenced the people around me because i tend to align with the groups that i'm involved in, and for the most part, nobody seems to really care. So, it's probably fine. I would've been yelled at otherwise. It's not like they're afraid to yell at me or something.

you’re claiming that the dictionary isn’t the ultimate authority on words, people are.

Yes. Is that not what the entire point of a dictionary is? To commonly define the usage of a word as people use it at a specific point in time? I feel like that's pretty much the only use case of a dictionary? It's not like we make up words to use because it's fun.

But as we’ve already figured out, the bullshit caveat to that is that those people have to be your friends for that authority to count.

you say that like it's a group of 5 people whomst i regularly interact with or something, and to be fair, it is a relatively small group of people that i interact with on a fairly regular basis. But they are nothing like me, and that's why i interact with them lol. They're interesting people and i like hearing what they have to say. Hell we even had a discussion on this very thread itself. One of them did think it was technically slur usage, but didn't seem to care, and the other parties just thought it was funny. At the end of the day, we're all just trying to be a little amusing.

The dictionary doesn’t count, I don’t count, the opinions of the people who existed when it was a slur don’t count, only you and your friends count.

i'm not saying you don't count, i'm just saying that your opinion probably isn't the authoritarian rule behind the definition of one specific word. Neither is mine, or the people i interact with. The people who existed when it was a slur don't count mostly because it isn't that time right now. On account of it being about 30 years later. And given the pretty fucking amusing context that i used it in, they probably wouldn't care, nor would they care if they were called one today tbh. At the end of the day, it's just a fucking word, who cares, we've got more important shit to be doing.

I don’t use Google.

very funny, i appreciate this, DDG i presume? Or are we a sear type user?

One of the results is dictionary.com, which isn’t a valid authority on words

weird, wonder how they get money, and why they exist, and what classifies a dictionary as a dictionary, and i wonder why urban dictionary is so painfully accurate with slang definitions. Anyway, what was the definition they used? Probably also the slur form i'm guessing. Probably on account of being a dictionary, huh.

My friends don’t use “cap” to mean “lie” so it doesn’t mean that and has never meant that

yeah, and maybe mine do, or maybe people you interact with will, and you will be confused. Such is life, shit moves on without you, shit moves on without me. We move on without shit. Words are a socially imagined concept that come from nowhere. Why do you think the UK has such a different vocabulary than the US? Why do you think the US has different accents in different places, and why do you think they use slightly differing vocabulary depending on where you go? It's almost like words hold no significantly strict meaning.

But let me guess – those arguments are only valid when you use them.

i mean idk, you tell me. I was never arguing anything other than the fact that explicitly declaring something to be such way for such reasons, is probably not going to accurate in every situation.