This is a game I came across on Kickstarter. Looks fun.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1770327025/meme-battle

@kittennose: Yeah ok you're right cause scholars are celebate and must have some sort of divinity so as to not allow themselves to be tempted by evils such as calling out people for what they are. This has been enlightening. Thank you.

You can still have the same discussion, with the wording that suits you best. These are just tools that help people communicate their ideas. Yes, I have experience in academics, but as a living breathing person I also have experience in life. I can choose to state my opinion however I believe will best help in its explanation. The same can't be said for those who distance themselves from academics, failing to see it as merely a tool to help express themselves, just because it may seem to be too lofty and reflect an idea of a person that just sits in a library, huffs on a pipe, and disses the hood. That notion, unfortunately for a lot of people, can not be farther from the truth. Reading these things beforehand is akin to listening to a lot of conversation on the matter, it is not a must, but just helps. Like I said, it is a tool. A lot of these people spend their lives trying to understand society, psychology, and how people comprehend things with relation to the changing environment, politics, religion, and social agenda. It may sound surprising, but the source material that leads to an academic study is not a silent observation of everybody else, as if in a lab, but the introspection of an individual that asks itself the same questions about life as everybody else. If said person has utilities such as academics and language at disposal, then all the better. In the end, one can realize that the things that are discussed are not as complicated as they seem. They are just a more elaborately worded way of saying things like "Dude! Man, woman. I don't care, cause we share stuff. It's when people talk about all this bullshit that people hate each other!" One is a stream of consciousness, casual way of talking about things, and the other is merely a more organized and clear way of expressing that opinion.

Most people, most non traditionalist logical people anyway, read these things and find that what they have been thinking and asking all along has been said in such a way that it aids them in expressing themselves, perhaps better than they ever could. While this is the case, I am also aware that there are some traditionalists that do not go outside the syllabus and do not challenge a lot of these ideas. I shared these ideas because I felt a lot of them so be supportive of what I was thinking. However, notice that a lot of the context here is also open to discussion and challenge, hence the message board. If you are worried about the use of language to fight discrimination, you'll notice that the theory agrees with you and claims that this method is ineffective. Now in 2015, a lot of these ideas have changed or shifted into another approach. However, we improve upon precedence, therefore it is always helpful to know what path older generations have taken.

Long story short. I understand what you are saying, but I also understand that there is no valid reason to be a douche about it.

The horn analogy is merely to emphasize that lack is not loss, and that extra piece should not determine social status. Horns work for me because there is no discrimination of that non-existent situation yet. Though I agree that human nature, on the other hand, will discriminate once this becomes a real situation. That is the fear. Even if everything was reset, some form of discrimination will probably develop again. We tend to find it easier to catalog and categorize our social environment. The whole idea here is of course to also show the paradox we face as people, our desire for change (an idealized world that accepts centers of meaning no longer exist) versus our desire for control and meaning (still looking for centers of meaning to make sense of the environment). Change, in most cases, is a chaotic undertaking.

As for language fighting discrimination. Kristeva also agrees that this form of feminism is similar to a form of terrorism, not in the sense of physical violence, but as denying society and its established rules as a form of reaction, thereby distancing itself from the community. Therefore it is useless and pointless.

The whole idea of how language and symbolism changes over time is a different topic, one which i might mention soon. Meanwhile, there are some texts which i find extremely useful in terms of symbolism and linguistics. Saussure's signifier/signified relationship, Barthes's Mythologies, and Stanley Fish's "Is There a Text In This Class" are helpful readings. You can also look at Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding. Keep in mind these are mostly theories (literary). Things change.

Academics don't take things so literally anymore. That ended when structuralism ended around 50 years ago. In the post-structuralist and post-modern world, things are surprisingly closer to how you perceive them, because you are a post-modern era person.

Heh. Borat...

Capitalism is among the factors, perhaps the most significant, that control discourse. It is also the basis of how civilization has developed into what it is. If civilization were to be stripped to its roots, that would include capitalism as well. Then again the dilemma is whether or not it is in human nature to go down that road again. I would have mentioned that and even referenced Baudrillard's "Simulacra and Simulations", but it would have been too long. Instead, I focused on discourse as the sum of symbols (more Saussure territory) and deconstruction.

Even the topic of capitalism itself requires tons of readings to fully comprehend, none of which would serve my purpose. The things I wrote here themselves are not even enough. I just wanted to go over the basics and share.

Yeah, sorry about that. This wall of text does not even come close to covering the whole topic but one has to stop somewhere :D

note: I noticed some disturbing typos and a few grammatical errors. Alas, I am unable to edit the main post. Thankfully the human brain fixes those errors while reading.