Showing posts with label reproductive rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reproductive rights. Show all posts

Sunday, 19 August 2012

Words have meanings

I'm all for simile and metaphor; they make language colourful and engaging. Sometimes they can even highlight aspects of a particular discourse that wouldn't otherwise be apparent.

Hyperbole, however, needs careful handling if its use is not to be counter-productive. Comparing people to terrorists, for example, in such a way as to suggest that they are equivalent to terrorists, is not helpful. Unless they really are threatening innocent people's lives with bombs or other weapons — in which case we're not talking about a mere comparison, but a classification. If you're doing those things you're not just like a terrorist, you are a terrorist (and I don't mean that metaphorically).

Words have meanings, and if you're trying to make a point — to be understood as clearly and precisely as possible — you should think carefully about how you do it. Throwing around reckless and invalid comparisons will only make you appear as a crazed ranter.

The above is but one aspect brought up by this article on the website Network for Church Monitoring: "American Women are Under Assault from Christian Republicans"
(Via Lola Heavey on Facebook, originally from PoliticsUSA.)