(This is a bit of a delayed commentary on the little brouhaha between Matthews and Kevin James, some Wingnut turdlet)
I once knew an Albanian woman. When she got mad at someone, she would let loose with a torrent of Albanian invective. One of the phrases she would yell sounded like "sheep shonnie nonnie." I have no idea what that means, but I gathered it was the sort of phrase that, if uttered to another Albanian, might well have led to someone suddenly coming down with a bad case of bullet wounds.
If I were to yell "sheep shonnie nonnie" at someone, I would be in the same situation as that turdlet was in when he was throwing around the word "appeaser." James had no idea what the term "appeaser" meant, he had no idea what happened during the Munich negotiations in 1938 or what Prime Minister Chamberlain did that was termed "appeasement." All James knew was that calling someone an "appeaser" was a bad thing.
That is partially what is wrong in this country today: We have people throwing around terms as pejoratives with no absolutely fucking clue what they are talking about. As a result, we now have people like Kevin James and George Bush who seem to think that "discussions" and "diplomacy" are synonymous with "appeasement." If diplomacy is appeasement, then Nixon appeased the Chinese when he went to China in 1972. Nixon appeased the Soviets when he negotiated the SALT I treaty in 1972. Reagan was an appeaser when he met with Gorbachev at the Reykjavik Summit in 1986.
Words have power. But they also have meaning. When people bandy about words and phrases with faint or no regard for what those words and phrases mean, then they debase both the discussion and themselves. They show themselves to be bereft of ideas and understanding, they can only throw around words like a gorilla throws feces at other gorillas.
George W. Bush uses words such as "appeasement" and "freedom" and "liberty" and "sacrifice" with no concept as to what those words mean. He really and truly is the Chimperor, for all he does is fling rhetorical shit at those who oppose him.
No comments:
Post a Comment
House Rules #1, #2 and #6 apply to all comments. Rule #3 also applies to political comments.
In short, don't be a jackass. THIS MEANS YOU!
If you never see your comments posted, see Rule #7.
All comments must be on point and address either the points raised in the blog post or points raised by commenters in response.
Any comments that drift off onto other topics are subject to deletion.
(Please don't feed the trolls.)
中國詞不評論，冒抹除的風險。僅英語。
COMMENT MODERATION IS IN EFFECT UFN. This means that if you are an insulting dick, nobody will ever see it.