One of my long-running jokes on twitter is “emojis are violence.” To be fair, I’m not a fan of emojis. They’re childish and rarely do they convey a message either of value or coherence. When I ask people what a string of emojis proffered by someone else means, they give some vague answer because they don’t really know. They may get the gist of the message, like someone likes or hates something, but that’s about as close as it gets to actual meaning. I don’t like them.
But emojis aren’t violence. They’re emojis. Silly and pointless, in my view, but just emojis. What sort of blithering idiot would claim emojis are actually violence?
Let’s make it plain: student debt is policy violence.
That’s not some random nutjob, but Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley of the Massachusetts 7th Congressional District. Regardless of what you think about canceling student debt, there is one thing it absolutely is not: policy violence. The reason why is that there is no such thing as policy violence, and there is no use of the word “violence” that could possibly be combined with policy to make it rational, any more than emoji violence.
The use of words in this incoherent fashion has become commonplace. Add “violence” behind a word to signal it’s a bad thing. Add “justice” behind a word to signal it’s a good thing, such as “climate justice” or “reproductive justice.” That it’s a bastardization of language seems too obvious to require further discussion, but then, this has become so ubiquitous as to create in the minds of its proponents a substitute for actual thought or cognizable reasons.
As fun as it may be to ridicule the midwits who use language like this to fuel their passion, don’t mistake Pressley for an idiot, just because she plays one on twitter. She knows what works with her tribe and it serves her end to abuse language for the cause. It’s no longer a funny joke to twit “emojis are violence” because a not insignificant portion of the left believes that this use of “violence” reflects something real, some harm inflicted on them by a policy they don’t like.
On the bright side, Pressley’s twit was met with fairly broad derision, as it well deserved.
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On the dark side, this is the sort of rhetorical device being used to subvert language, to inflame the unduly passionate and to raise the level of outrage over policy differences to battle cries that potentially breed acts of actual violence.
Emojis are dumb, childish crap. They are not violence, and neither is a policy with which you disagree.
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“Climate justice is infrastructure.”
“Student debt is policy violence.”
“War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength.”
See where I’m going w/ this? 😉
You’re trying to trigger both PK with a trite reference and me with an emoji?
Hah! Got it one. I actually debated incl a shout out to PK rgd the most recognizable “1984” quote, but figured it might be “gilding the lily”.
Now, in all seriousness, the Orwell quotes are apt because our current political situation is so disturbingly and eerily similar to things he described.
The Marx quote about history repeating itself “first as tragedy and then as farce” also comes to mind.
I very much fear the outcome this time around will prove especially tragic.
OTBS, I’m often wrong…
Why do you insist on being so violent?
Asks the serial stare rapist…
I’m thinking we need a George Orwell emoji for Hotel guests who insist upon beating that dead horse.
The quest of demagogues to be taken seriously but not literally continues. If they keep it up one of these days we’ll get someone like this in the White House.
She should try this with “rape” instead of “violence” and see how it goes. The responses to it would be instructive.
Now that you bring it up, “rape” should also be on the list of words incoherently used. Rape has long been stripped of definition, but it’s application to things having nothing to do with rape has surfaced on occasion. Maybe I should toss “comment rape” into the mix before someone else does?
I do not think there is an emoji yet for student debt. One of the unfortunate impacts of the “_______________ are violence’ campaigns is that peawits, half-wits and mid-wits in our society then draw the conclusion that actual, physical violence to combat the “_______________” must be okay. Simply a matter of “self-defense,” as they see it, such that it should be permissible to shoot anyone who sends an offensive emoji or who attempts to enforce student debt. Perhaps the recent successful lawsuits against the perceived “unite the right” conspirators will provide a mechanism for people who have been injured because their words or emojis were declared “violence” to seek recompense from those who put that ball in motion.
Violence begets violence. -glock emoji-
“I do not think there is an emoji yet for student debt.”
I think maybe a little house, sports car, and boat swirling down a sink drain would be appropriate.
That should be the emoji for the parents of a student who graduates without student debt.
Looks like another case of ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t.’
It should occur to them that if student debt is violence, student loans must be violence. When we get rid of student debt, it can be expected to prospectively impact the willingness of lenders to make any further student loans. Are they truly ready to accept the policy consequences of no more student loans? I doubt that future will be the joyful one they envision.
Speaking as a left pondian, it is a stupid way to frame an important question, and one which will only result in impotent screeching instead of promoting a useful debate. I realise that the American way is not ours, but the same substitution of emotion instead of reason is getting to be a thing here too.
[Ed. Note: Since this isn’t about the issue of student debt cancellation, deleted.]
A polarised debate about “policy violence” might play well with the fans, but completely derails any useful discussion about the subject in question. It’s almost as if they want to play to the crowd and couldn’t give the slightest shit about anything constructive.
Fair edit, not on point.
This was a risky post because of that rabbit hole.
For sure. It’s easy to forget the hows, by getting derailed by the, not necessary, whys.
One of the reasons I keep coming back.
Since this is the season of goodwill to all men, best to your and yours, and all the other denizens of this forum. Always informative, challenging, and sometimes valuable.
Our host has no qualms about telling you you are full of shit.
This is worth a lot, and much appreciated, since I usually deal with dumb machines that do what I tell them, right or wrong. No-ones life is going to change dramatically because I fuck up; I’m glad I get to shoot the shit with our host and others where the stakes are life changing.
Different idioms for different times:
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will always hurt me.
or
Sports build characters.
Liberalism is white supremacy.
Winsome is a trans-white supremacist.
Loudon county gifted program students are white-adjacent supremacists.
You’ve broken the code while sniffing glue.
Hold on lemme put down my crack pipe.
If you’re saying I’m violent, you mean like my fellow Michigander Violent J from Insane Clown Posse? Love that guy.
If you’re saying I’m a Nazi, well aren’t we all in a way? My right-wing Jewish activist pal is a Ben Shapiro Nazi. I’m a Mel Brooks Nazi because I love The Producers. And you are totes the comment Nazi around here.
The way to kill all this pejorative labelling BS is to water down the labels to nothing. Just like my namesake ObP.
What he’s saying is you missed the point of the post and took a dive down your own personal rabbit hole. This may become obvious when you come down off whatever you’re smoking.
Agree that Pressley is no random nutjob.