Thursday, June 22, 2023

For the Love of English, Stop Changing Definitions -

 Intellectual Takeout

". . .Some of the greatest societies in history have crumbled not from losing wars but from cultural decay of its citizens."


. . ."It seems that the English language today, at least in America, is in the throes of taking the descriptivist position to the extreme. We are now seeing a concerted effort to overturn the traditional definitions of words and terms in order to push certain political and social agendas.

"The back-and-forth of whether we should say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” is almost always a subject of disagreement that appears in the news around the holiday season. Though Merry Christmas has been the traditional sentiment shared by those who celebrate the holiday that occurs on December 25, progressives have urged us to say “Happy Holidays,” as it apparently broadens the scope of the holiday and untethers it from the traditional celebration of Jesus’ birth.

"But this was just the beginning of what has now become an all-out war on language. There’s a phenomenon of outlawing—or otherwise censoring—language that may be offensive to some people. And instead of questioning that perhaps someone’s feelings about a word are incorrect, some believe that it is better to just change the definition of words.". . .

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