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Wednesday 21 January 2015

The Meaning of "Myth"

Speaking of martyrdom and myths, have you noticed that the meaning of the word "myth" has changed?

There's that Notre Dame professor, for instance, whose subject matter is actually martyrs in the early Church, (when the subject isn't, quit your fussing and pay for my birth control, which in her mind is a related topic.)

Well, you know, as a professor, she must be very smart, so if she has decided to redefine "myth" to mean, well, yeah, true, but not as bad as you're making it out to be...." we should take heed, right?

Other instances of this new usage of "myth" are to discredit reports of protesters chanting “What do we want? Dead cops!”, since other reporting had erroneously claimed that protesters were chanting "kill a cop," when they were actually referring to murderous police as "kill-ER cops."

Similarly, if you disagree on the causes of climate change, or the degree to which blame for it can be laid at various doors, you can refer to the whole dang thing as a "myth."

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