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If someone was peaceful all day and then commits murder, maybe the murder only takes 5 minutes, or 30 seconds ... would you proceed to characterize their day as

If someone was peaceful all day and then commits murder, maybe the murder only takes 5 minutes, or 30 seconds ... would you proceed to characterize their day as mostly peaceful? I mean, mathematically yes, but it points to how this word ‘mostly’ is what journalism teaches is a weasel-word. It renders the statement meaningless.

Nasrudith 6y ago
Well there is your problem - you are literally treating a large collection of very different people like a single person or hive mind. Seriously pause and reflect since that usually comes up with very severe bigots and is pretty far down the dehumanization ladder.
- deleted 6y ago
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- whiddershins 6y ago
  Not at all, I am protesting an abuse of the language that makes for a nearly Orwellian level of nonsense in thinking and speech. ‘Most of the protestors were non-violent’ is an intelligible and probably accurate statement. ‘Mostly peaceful protests’ first of all intrinsically refers to the protest as a singular entity, not addressing the individuality. That’s not my doing, that’s in the phrase, making the protest the subject, as opposed to the people. Secondly if you reread what I wrote, my main complaint is that the word ‘mostly’ is what journalistic editors refer to as a ‘weasel-world’. Weasel words make a statement that sounds descriptive but in fact could apply to almost anything. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word Moving past semantics, it is worth noting that the violent protestors would be completely ineffectual without masses of nonviolent protestors to hide among. Anyway, I would love it if this writing falls on receptive eyes, I am concerned that the implication you made: that what I am writing is bigoted, could indicate you are not very interested in what I actually mean.

Nasrudith 6y ago

Well there is your problem - you are literally treating a large collection of very different people like a single person or hive mind. Seriously pause and reflect since that usually comes up with very severe bigots and is pretty far down the dehumanization ladder.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
whiddershins 6y ago
Not at all, I am protesting an abuse of the language that makes for a nearly Orwellian level of nonsense in thinking and speech. ‘Most of the protestors were non-violent’ is an intelligible and probably accurate statement. ‘Mostly peaceful protests’ first of all intrinsically refers to the protest as a singular entity, not addressing the individuality. That’s not my doing, that’s in the phrase, making the protest the subject, as opposed to the people. Secondly if you reread what I wrote, my main complaint is that the word ‘mostly’ is what journalistic editors refer to as a ‘weasel-world’. Weasel words make a statement that sounds descriptive but in fact could apply to almost anything. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word Moving past semantics, it is worth noting that the violent protestors would be completely ineffectual without masses of nonviolent protestors to hide among. Anyway, I would love it if this writing falls on receptive eyes, I am concerned that the implication you made: that what I am writing is bigoted, could indicate you are not very interested in what I actually mean.