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The word "pornography" puts the focus on the person consuming it, as opposed to "nonconsensual" or "abuse" which puts the focus, rightly in my eyes, on the peop

The word "pornography" puts the focus on the person consuming it, as opposed to "nonconsensual" or "abuse" which puts the focus, rightly in my eyes, on the people who did not consent to having their images either taken or made public. Not confusing at all.

Hizonner 5y ago
No, a bunch of people needed a pretext to come up with some jargon so that they could feel special, so, among other things, they decided to adopt the unsupported and frankly ridiculous ideas that (a) the word "pornography" put the focus on the consumer in any certain way, (b) any such "focusing" was strong enough to be important or noticeable, and (c) anybody who wasn't desperately searching for something to complain about would ever care. Another excuse they used was that the existing terms were somehow imprecise... and that they'd be able to come up with new terms that were (1) not equally imprecise and (2) somehow likely to defy the universal drift present in all human language, so that they would not end up with completely new connotations 5 minutes after first being used publicly, and completely new denotations shortly after that. So they tried to rename things that had good enough names. Names that were searchable. Names that were meaningful both to people new to the issues and to people familiar with the issues. Not because it mattered, but because it made them feel important.
noah_buddy 5y ago
Agree to disagree, to me this seems like the euphemism treadmill paired with academic/professional lingo seeping into the public. Still, I'm not going to presume that someone knows more or has a more valid opinion on something because they use a fancy new acronym. And I severely doubt that anyone's mind will be swayed by an acronym either. Fortunately on both of these issues, I doubt many people need to be convinced.
- maroonblazer 5y ago
  > to me this seems like the euphemism treadmill paired with academic/professional lingo seeping into the public. I agree the euphemism treadmill is a thing, but based on events here in the U.S. over the last several years I think we could use much more "academic/professional lingo seeping into the public" if by 'lingo' we mean impartial, reasoned takes on things.
  - noah_buddy 5y ago
    That's not what I meant, no.

Hizonner 5y ago

No, a bunch of people needed a pretext to come up with some jargon so that they could feel special, so, among other things, they decided to adopt the unsupported and frankly ridiculous ideas that (a) the word "pornography" put the focus on the consumer in any certain way, (b) any such "focusing" was strong enough to be important or noticeable, and (c) anybody who wasn't desperately searching for something to complain about would ever care. Another excuse they used was that the existing terms were somehow imprecise... and that they'd be able to come up with new terms that were (1) not equally imprecise and (2) somehow likely to defy the universal drift present in all human language, so that they would not end up with completely new connotations 5 minutes after first being used publicly, and completely new denotations shortly after that. So they tried to rename things that had good enough names. Names that were searchable. Names that were meaningful both to people new to the issues and to people familiar with the issues. Not because it mattered, but because it made them feel important.

noah_buddy 5y ago

Agree to disagree, to me this seems like the euphemism treadmill paired with academic/professional lingo seeping into the public. Still, I'm not going to presume that someone knows more or has a more valid opinion on something because they use a fancy new acronym. And I severely doubt that anyone's mind will be swayed by an acronym either. Fortunately on both of these issues, I doubt many people need to be convinced.

maroonblazer 5y ago
> to me this seems like the euphemism treadmill paired with academic/professional lingo seeping into the public. I agree the euphemism treadmill is a thing, but based on events here in the U.S. over the last several years I think we could use much more "academic/professional lingo seeping into the public" if by 'lingo' we mean impartial, reasoned takes on things.
- noah_buddy 5y ago
  That's not what I meant, no.