Rep. Eli Crane used the derogatory phrase in describing his proposed amendment to a military bill. Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty asked that his words be stricken from the record.

  • thefloweracidic@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Its not just pedantic semantic, word choice matters. Language is fluid and mutable, acting like the meaning and context behind one phrase is the same as the other is ignorant to the current state of the US and its history.

    For example, each of these sentence read differently depending on each word you emphasize, but the all say “the same thing”.

    I have a cookie, not you.

    I have a cookie, not you.

    I have a cookie, not you.

    I have a cookie, not you.

    I have a cookie, **not **you.

    I have a cookie, not you.

    Back in the Jim Crow days there were plenty of “Colored People” signs, but no “People of Color Signs”.

    Word choice matters.

    I’m not reading the responses. Sorry not sorry.

    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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      1 year ago

      Off topic but my go to sentence for showing how emphasis changes the meaning is “I never said she stole my money”. Emphasizing any word gives a unique meaning.

      • Scripter_Lizard@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Wow that’s crazy. I guess my brain just kinda took care of the interpretation for me. I never really thought about it that way before, but it’s crazy just how much meaning can change just based on context alone.