I'm trying to keep up with one of the current debates on free speech: that of Steven Crowder and Carlos Maza, and Maza's attempts to have Crowder banned on YouTube.
Personally, I find Crowder quite amusing although I sometimes stop his videos before they finish because they can be quite lengthy. As for Maza's videos, I find them dull and incredibly misleading. His humour really isn't 'up my street'.
But that's all by-the-by.
I came across this article, written by someone who is clearly on Maza's side (but that doesn't bother me, I like to be informed of both sides of debates, unlike many others...) and I figure the author must be incredibly swamped in this current LGBT-add-a-letter linguistic nightmare.
Here's the quote that got me:
"Maza, by the way, doesn’t refer to himself as “a queer”, but rather as “queer” – and yes, that makes a world of difference. “Queer” is one of those words that can be both a slur and a regular adjective and you have to look at the context of the sentence in which it’s used to know the intention behind it, but of course such an exercise requires a minimum amount of intellectual honesty."
I'm not sure about "intellectual honesty"... If a gay person says to me, "I'm queer," or, "I'm a queer," I will think exactly the same thing. I will certainly not be thinking, "Hey, wait a minute, was the indefinite article used there or not?"
I'm just convinced this whole thing is an exercise in linguistic gymnastics.
It's absolutely insane!
Personally, I find Crowder quite amusing although I sometimes stop his videos before they finish because they can be quite lengthy. As for Maza's videos, I find them dull and incredibly misleading. His humour really isn't 'up my street'.
But that's all by-the-by.
I came across this article, written by someone who is clearly on Maza's side (but that doesn't bother me, I like to be informed of both sides of debates, unlike many others...) and I figure the author must be incredibly swamped in this current LGBT-add-a-letter linguistic nightmare.
Here's the quote that got me:
"Maza, by the way, doesn’t refer to himself as “a queer”, but rather as “queer” – and yes, that makes a world of difference. “Queer” is one of those words that can be both a slur and a regular adjective and you have to look at the context of the sentence in which it’s used to know the intention behind it, but of course such an exercise requires a minimum amount of intellectual honesty."
I'm not sure about "intellectual honesty"... If a gay person says to me, "I'm queer," or, "I'm a queer," I will think exactly the same thing. I will certainly not be thinking, "Hey, wait a minute, was the indefinite article used there or not?"
I'm just convinced this whole thing is an exercise in linguistic gymnastics.
It's absolutely insane!
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