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George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

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Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#381

Post by mvdtnz »

klyrs wrote: post #332
dandellion wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was funny.

I think it's a well-constructed comedic narrative. I disagree with the facts as he presents them and the conclusions he reaches, but I have respect for his art. In my opinion, this is way better than, for example, Seinfeld lashing out because audiences don't find his work funny. edit: Oh, lol. Perhaps you meant "because he's dead." Whoosh!

> I think it's a well-constructed comedic narrative

Why do you write like this? What's wrong with just saying "I think it's funny"?

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#382

Post by abdullahkhalids »

Supermancho wrote: post #365
abdullahkhalids wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the term used for 'climate change due to human interactions' is anthropogenic climate change. Which plays exactly into George Carlin said. Why use 'anthropogenic climate change' which a regular person won't know the meaning of instead of 'human-caused climate change' or something.

The only change that's of global concern is the spiking energy accumulation. It's global warming, as most people would understand it from reading the link. Climate change is soft language to lump in secondary effects, to make it acceptable for deniers and special interests.

I don't agree. The effects of humans dumping CO2 and other gases in the atmosphere is not just the increase in the average temperature.

It is increased variability in temperatures. It is extreme droughts and extreme floods (which occurred in Pakistan last year). It is extreme tropical storms. It is historical levels of forest fires (such as what we saw in Canada this year). Etc etc. All of these things are cause for concern.

Climate change is a much more accurate term than global warming, even if climate deniers use it to their ends. The opposite effect also occurs. People in Canada will joke, "oh global warming is great, maybe it will warm up here a bit." But talk about forest fires and it is much harder for them to disregard the concerns.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#383

Post by faeriechangling »

rootusrootus wrote: post #358
rpmisms wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Retarded means "slowed down". It's a very good word, and even better as an insult.

It'll also get you banned pretty fast in the majority of subreddits, despite the fact that very few people today (and even fewer who use reddit) were ever legitimately referred to as retarded back in the day.

I was called it in both senses of the word and I think that was extremely common for people of a certain generation. I saw the full time special ed getting called that more than occasionally. There were all sorts of popular memes like “arguing on the internet is like winning the special olympics…”

What do you know? The biggest thing I noticed after “retard” fell out of favour is more specific insults like “autist” became more prevalent and I’d say this rotation of the euphemism treadmill has only made stigma worse for certain groups because “retard” was used as such a catch-all that the stigma of it didn’t really seem to stick to people much.

As for banning slurs from Reddit, irrespective of slurs should be banned for the good of those being slurred, they cause derails and are magnets for reports.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#384

Post by [deleted] »

lamontcg wrote: post #170
DangitBobby wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Webster's: 1a: an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance Their meeting was an accident. 1b: lack of intention or necessity : chance They met by accident rather than by design. 2a: an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance Car accidents match one or all of these definitions.

The first two are precisely what most car "accidents" are not. They're usually the result of negligence, which is captured in 2a, but the definitions which carry a lack of any agency usually overshadow the meaning in 2a. This is why it is a great "soft" word because of the inherently fuzzy meaning. Almost always in a "car accident" one or both parties, often along with the DOT, fucked up and need to do better. You sh…

[deleted]

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#385

Post by DangitBobby »

lamontcg wrote: post #170
DangitBobby wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Webster's: 1a: an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance Their meeting was an accident. 1b: lack of intention or necessity : chance They met by accident rather than by design. 2a: an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance Car accidents match one or all of these definitions.

The first two are precisely what most car "accidents" are not. They're usually the result of negligence, which is captured in 2a, but the definitions which carry a lack of any agency usually overshadow the meaning in 2a. This is why it is a great "soft" word because of the inherently fuzzy meaning. Almost always in a "car accident" one or both parties, often along with the DOT, fucked up and need to do better. You sh…

You can argue whether it's negligence, but negligence doesn't make it not an accident.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#386

Post by DangitBobby »

_dain_ wrote: post #162
DangitBobby wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Webster's: 1a: an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance Their meeting was an accident. 1b: lack of intention or necessity : chance They met by accident rather than by design. 2a: an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance Car accidents match one or all of these definitions.

With proper road design, traffic fatalities can be reduced to a negligible rate. Oslo famously achieved zero per year. Since roads can be designed with this degree of safety, it follows that high rates of fatalities are a result of poor road design, and hence not unforeseeable accidents. "Accident" is actually softening language -- it diminishes the agency of the driver, and the designer of the road. "Traffic collisi…

I didn't say it wasn't softening at all, I'm pushing back against the ridiculous assertion that they aren't accidents.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#387

Post by DangitBobby »

eesmith wrote: post #175
DangitBobby wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Webster's: 1a: an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance Their meeting was an accident. 1b: lack of intention or necessity : chance They met by accident rather than by design. 2a: an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance Car accidents match one or all of these definitions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collision#Criticism_of... > In 1997, George L. Reagle, the Associate Administrator for Motor Carriers of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration wrote a letter stating that "A crash is not an accident", emphasizing that the Department's Research and Special Programs Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration…

Yes, propaganda happens. Doesn't make them not accidents.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#388

Post by memefrog »

mcpackieh wrote: post #361
mcpackieh wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference between deliberate and accidental civilian casualties is not clear cut. For instance, what do you call it when you intend to attack the enemies soldiers with a bunch of bombs but you know a certain percentage will fall on civilians and you accept that inevitability and proceed anyway? Is that deliberate? Not quite, because it wasn't your intention. Was it an accident? Not really, because you knew it wa…

Response to memefrog's [dead] comment: > It's not deliberate, which is the question that matters. I don't agree that deliberate or not deliberate is all that matters or the end of the discussion. In criminal law if you do something that could reasonably be expected to kill somebody without really desiring that outcome, you might still be guilty or murder or at least manslaughter. For instance if you drive your motorc…

[dead]

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#389

Post by nextlevelwizard »

mrtksn wrote: post #103
nextlevelwizard wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vegan argument is so silly as if meat industry just spun up overnight and only reason people consume delicious and nutritious animal products is because they can but them in sanitized packaging. I hope you also aren’t buying consumer electronics because then you are literally putting animals ahead of humans. Or is that too inconvenient for you and you actually like the cognitive dissonance after all

I'm puzzled why people are so triggered by the vegan thing. That's not the point. Or maybe it is, maybe the meat eaters culture war is based on the idea of the virtue of eating meat and they get very angry when someone points out that actual animals are being killed, like cut with a knife then let to bleed out then seperated into pieces and shipped to the consumers in a package that doesn't look like an animal that w…

Because you usually lead with your best argument and when your first argument is complete non-sense what hope does rest of your argument have?

Also there is no "meat eaters culture war", but vegas sure try to spark a war. Vegas used to try sell the health benefits of vegan life style, but that has been disproven so many times that now they (or you?) only have the moral angle to work with.

You can try to twist this as much as you like, but the fact remains that (so far) no vegan product has been able to compete with meat in taste or texture. I simply do not care where the food comes from. Even if factory farming was outlawed today it would just mean I would pay more for my meat or if I had to slaughter it myself I would need to learn that skill, I am not going to give up on delicious meat products just because you can't sleep at night.

There are so many other greater injustices in the world that caring about factory farming makes you kind of an asshole. But if you can show me a meat substitute that tastes and feels like meat in my mouth then I will switch to vegan in a heartbeat, because then your moral argument actually makes sense.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#390

Post by mrtksn »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #389
mrtksn wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm puzzled why people are so triggered by the vegan thing. That's not the point. Or maybe it is, maybe the meat eaters culture war is based on the idea of the virtue of eating meat and they get very angry when someone points out that actual animals are being killed, like cut with a knife then let to bleed out then seperated into pieces and shipped to the consumers in a package that doesn't look like an animal that w…

Because you usually lead with your best argument and when your first argument is complete non-sense what hope does rest of your argument have? Also there is no "meat eaters culture war", but vegas sure try to spark a war. Vegas used to try sell the health benefits of vegan life style, but that has been disproven so many times that now they (or you?) only have the moral angle to work with. You can try to twist this as…

You really need to do something for your anger issues.
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