"language games ... confuse the masses into compliance with a set of ideas"
Indeed. Reminds me of a passage from an old Quillette article (archived) titled, "Words Lose Their Meaning at Wilfrid Laurier University":
"Though different literary forms, the key message of both works [1984, & 'Politics and the English Language'] was the same: beware any person or group that redefines words so that they no longer align with facts, common sense, and common usage."
Some of that is a normal change of definitions & terminology to reflect new insights, knowledge, and/or perspectives. However, it seems most of it, recently in any case, is caused by grifters & political opportunists of one stripe or another -- mostly transactivists -- with the intent of muddying the waters to perpetrate bait-and-switch frauds. Though, as I think I mentioned in another comment to you elsewhere, a big part of the problem is that every man, woman, and otherkin has different definitions for both sex and gender, the latter in particular. Nice synopsis of the options on the table by evolutionary biologist Colin Wright:
Which brings me to a passage from that Reuters article you linked to:
"... expressed regret about their decision to transition from the gender they were assigned at birth."
I think they're clearly equating sex and gender which is totally incompatible with and inconsistent with the more scientifically rational position of DEFINING gender as a rough synonym for personalities and personality types -- Colin's items 3, 4, & 5. Rather risible to argue that kids are assigned personalities at birth, Rowling's sorting hat parceling out "introvert", "extrovert", "narcissist", etc. with gay abandon ...
But given that probably some half of the population is using a set of definitions that are virtually the antithesis of the definitions used by the other half of the population -- and both halves are more or less pigheadedly clueless that that is the case -- it is then maybe not surprising that there has been so little progress on the issue. I think that Jonathan Haidt had a nice summary of that fact in an Atlantic essay -- "Why The Past 10 Years Of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid" -- which is playing out in many different venues and issues:
"The text does not say that God destroyed the tower [of Babel], but in many popular renderings of the story he does, so let’s hold that dramatic image in our minds: people wandering amid the ruins, unable to communicate, condemned to mutual incomprehension."
"language games ... confuse the masses into compliance with a set of ideas"
Indeed. Reminds me of a passage from an old Quillette article (archived) titled, "Words Lose Their Meaning at Wilfrid Laurier University":
"Though different literary forms, the key message of both works [1984, & 'Politics and the English Language'] was the same: beware any person or group that redefines words so that they no longer align with facts, common sense, and common usage."
https://archive.ph/rKKcl
Some of that is a normal change of definitions & terminology to reflect new insights, knowledge, and/or perspectives. However, it seems most of it, recently in any case, is caused by grifters & political opportunists of one stripe or another -- mostly transactivists -- with the intent of muddying the waters to perpetrate bait-and-switch frauds. Though, as I think I mentioned in another comment to you elsewhere, a big part of the problem is that every man, woman, and otherkin has different definitions for both sex and gender, the latter in particular. Nice synopsis of the options on the table by evolutionary biologist Colin Wright:
https://twitter.com/SwipeWright/status/1234040036091236352
Which brings me to a passage from that Reuters article you linked to:
"... expressed regret about their decision to transition from the gender they were assigned at birth."
I think they're clearly equating sex and gender which is totally incompatible with and inconsistent with the more scientifically rational position of DEFINING gender as a rough synonym for personalities and personality types -- Colin's items 3, 4, & 5. Rather risible to argue that kids are assigned personalities at birth, Rowling's sorting hat parceling out "introvert", "extrovert", "narcissist", etc. with gay abandon ...
But given that probably some half of the population is using a set of definitions that are virtually the antithesis of the definitions used by the other half of the population -- and both halves are more or less pigheadedly clueless that that is the case -- it is then maybe not surprising that there has been so little progress on the issue. I think that Jonathan Haidt had a nice summary of that fact in an Atlantic essay -- "Why The Past 10 Years Of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid" -- which is playing out in many different venues and issues:
"The text does not say that God destroyed the tower [of Babel], but in many popular renderings of the story he does, so let’s hold that dramatic image in our minds: people wandering amid the ruins, unable to communicate, condemned to mutual incomprehension."
https://archive.ph/mbrZh
I'm reminded of a favourite quote of Francis Bacon:
“Therefore shoddy and inept application of words lays siege to the intellect in wondrous ways".
Indeed; sign of the times.