|
|
Brian M. Scott wrote:
> On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 00:00:19 +0200, "Jukka K. Korpela"
> <jkorpela@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
> <news:0jBlh.12967$wI4.10939@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in
> sci.lang:
>
> > Scripsit Brian M. Scott:
>
> >>> No, these days "racism" is a general-purpose curse word
> >>> that has no denotation; it expresses its user's strongly
> >>> emotional disapproval of something.
>
> >> Depends very much on who's using it;
>
> > Not any more. As soon as a word has been widely taken into
> > curse use, it becomes virtually impossible to use it in
> > any other way, except perhaps in limited circles, such
> > as scholars who can really agree on using such a word as
> > a term.
>
> While it has certainly started down that road, I don't agree
> that 'racist' has reached that point. 'Fascist', yes;
> 'racist', no.
"Fascist" has been rescued from the brink of meaningless opprobrium
(which seems to be what Jukka means by "curse") by the Bush
administration, which has largely embraced fascism in the classic
Mussolini sense of interpenetration of business and government.
|
|