Quote (majorblood @ Jun 29 2016 11:17am)
whats he misunderstanding this time?
His entire premise is flawed from the start, for two main reasons, in my opinion:
1. Adding a modifier to a word doesn't do anything to degrade the root word, as some type of linguistic effect inherent to English. That's just nonsensical.
2. Even if we accepted the above position as actually true, that of modifiers making a word a "perversion of itself", then it still means Ben's argument doesn't make sense. He criticizes social justice, because we're adding the modifier "social" to the word justice, but he's doing so in a way that says that "the left is concerned with group justice over individual justice". Isn't "individual" also a modifier of the word justice? Doesn't that mean that individual justice is also bad?
Aside from that, his understanding of what mainstream social justice movements are fighting for isn't accurate, because he's talking about a very extreme/fringe position when talking about white Americans needing to pay reparations to black people/people from Africa. That's not something widely supported or being fought for in leftist circles, aside from groups like the Uhuru Movement.