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The same thing it always meant. Like many things, just because it's a continuum and not binary doesn't mean it's a useless concept.
by cactacea 4y ago
The same thing it always meant. Like many things, just because it's a continuum and not binary doesn't mean it's a useless concept.
- P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y agoabsolutely not. What next, we can defend "tall" being anywhere from 1mm to 9 feet because height is a continuum? Words have meaning so they can be used for communication. If I use the word inbred to mean two siblings having a child and two partners sharing an ancestor 20 generations back, I'm not communicating anything when I use the word inbred. And pointing out that closeness of ancestry is a continuum is not a defense of using that word in that manner.