Semantics matter. Semantics can be exceptionally important.

It seems no matter how much I try to leave this subject alone, the issue of word choice and how it can impact in ways that the politically correct clearly never gave a stuff about keeps coming back to haunt me. Being so linguistically inclined that one can read at what you jokers call an adult level at age three has that sad effect, I suppose. But lately, the proclamations by defenders of so-called person-first language that it is merely a matter of semantics have me shaking my head.

Offensive language. Real offensive language, I mean.

In the constant back and forth about the use of so-called “person first” language (that is, “person with autism” or the like), a dangerous gambit or concession emerges. The “person first” camp, with all of their smugness and self-entitled ignorance of the implications, like to tell us that it is up to what the individual prefers. This seems perfectly reasonable at first, in spite of how some of them attempt to use this as a platform from which to bully us into adopting it. But just like “person with blackness” or “person with Hebrew” or “person with Chineseness”, to cite just a few potential examples, are unacceptable and not a matter of preference, neither is “person with autism”. I do not care what you have to say for yourselves, “person first”ers. I could be the only autistic individual in the world who feels this way about your separationistic language. That would only mean I am right, and everyone else is wrong.

It is not mere semantics.

Where do you people come from? Seriously, I want to know. And yes, I mean “you people” in the most derisive sense. No, wait, what I really mean when I say that (I know my co-GM would raise an eyebrow if she saw me writing those words that way) is “you [are not actually] people [to me]“.

More about writing. Specifically, the role of inspiration.

In my previous post, I set out to talk about how real, physical problems in my day to day world were placing a huge burden upon my ability to write, even in this journal. Yes, I know how that sounds, given that I have been churning out words in this journal at a rate that even Stephen King might be impressed by. But I will level with you here: the flow of ideas to mind and the flow of words from fingers to text file suffers terribly when the mind is suffering any form of discomfort.

Language evolution, and language manipulation. A reflection.

We are all of us communicative creatures. Even the smallest, lowliest of other species on the planet we inhabit communicate with one another and attempt to communicate with us in varying ways. Indeed, about some species such as the bear, scientists even say that it is a matter of when, not if, they learn to communicate with our species in a manner that we can make sense of. That is a pretty sobering thought when you stop to consider that abstract and nuanced speech happens to be one of the few things that differentiate us from other species on this planet. But with that advantage also comes a heavy burden. As our language is the means by which we learn and teach others about our world, it means that our use of language and other communications can be one of the most effective means to control the minds of others. And as the saying goes, if you control man’s mind, you control man.