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Tuesday 3 February 2015

Zealous and Proud Cretin That I Am.....

... oh, you're not?
(Look it up.)
Came across a two decade old Op-Ed piece in the NYTimes about the "euphemism treadmill," about which I was just whinging, though unaware that the phenomenon had a name.
It is by Steven Pinker of, or at least then of, MIT.
"Many people who don't have a drop of malice or prejudice but happen to be older or distant from university, media and government spheres find themselves tainted as bigots, for innocently using passe terms like...."
Anyway, I was thinking about this again while reading about the coming Synod, and the attempts by some churchmen to change traditional Catholic theological language in relation to sin because it is deemed offensive.
"Disordered" seems pretty mild to me, but then, I'm not trying to claim my sins aren't sinful.

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