4 ms·
Form and content are not perfectly separable, especially when we are talking to people, where the purpose of language is often to create a lossy expression of o
by mplanchard 4mo ago
Form and content are not perfectly separable, especially when we are talking to people, where the purpose of language is often to create a lossy expression of our thoughts. Content expressed with a slur for an ethnic group, for example, says something about a person’s underlying thoughts that the use of a more neutral term does not.
- trumpdong 4mo agoIt says he's schizophrenic, at least.
- mplanchard 4mo agoHaha yeah, in this case. But that’s hardly the norm, and it would be a weird thing to assume any time someone starts hurling racial epithets or whatever. It makes sense to me to ban that type of “hot” discourse from a community, because it doesn’t contribute in any way to productive conversations, even if it is sometimes caused by something the poster doesn’t control, like schizophrenia.