{"items": [{"author": "Daniel", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/tuesday-may-25-2010-the-effect-of-discouraging-words/395830631212/?comment_id=395833146212", "anchor": "fb-395833146212", "service": "fb", "text": "Are these rhetorical questions, or are you expecting them to be answered?", "timestamp": "1274944931"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/tuesday-may-25-2010-the-effect-of-discouraging-words/395830631212/?comment_id=395876101212", "anchor": "fb-395876101212", "service": "fb", "text": "Not rhetorical. Some of them might not be answerable, but they're not ones that I've already made up my mind on. Also, some of them are empirical questions. For example \"is there a small cost for each word that must be substituted for?\" could maybe be tested by having two groups do some graded activity involving language where one group had recently read something trying to convince them to stop using certain phrases.", "timestamp": "1274964772"}, {"author": "Julia", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/tuesday-may-25-2010-the-effect-of-discouraging-words/395830631212/?comment_id=396005751212", "anchor": "fb-396005751212", "service": "fb", "text": "now I want to sing \"Home on the Range\".", "timestamp": "1274998100"}, {"author": "Mitch", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/tuesday-may-25-2010-the-effect-of-discouraging-words/395830631212/?comment_id=396066686212", "anchor": "fb-396066686212", "service": "fb", "text": "As somebody whose family suffers from OCD, I wouldn't be offended if somebody used it in the manner described.", "timestamp": "1275016500"}, {"author": "Julia", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/tuesday-may-25-2010-the-effect-of-discouraging-words/395830631212/?comment_id=396160381212", "anchor": "fb-396160381212", "service": "fb", "text": "I see some different categories here. \"Gay\" as an insult is very clear in my mind - I see how it's harmful and nonsensical to use it as a synonym for \"bad\", because I don't think there's anything inherently bad about being gay. (I would put \"dumb\" in the same category, though I think I still use it. Inability to speak just isn't the same thing as not being intelligent.)
Then there are exaggerations - OCD for behavior that's only a bit compulsive, crazy for an idea that's only a bit irrational, idiot for someone who did something mildly stupid.
But some of these are describing something bad by using a word for a physical condition that is, well, bad. I'm not interested in pretending that scabs, lameness, or unintelligence are somehow good. We all vary. You don't have my knees or my singing voice. I don't have your musical skill or ability to do mental math. None of us have everything. But I don't see a point in pretending that disabilities or deficits aren't a problem.
I do think there's a cost to the richness of language when we cut out word uses. But luckily, humans are good at creating new uses.", "timestamp": "1275055574"}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/tuesday-may-25-2010-the-effect-of-discouraging-words/395830631212/?comment_id=10154073086866213", "anchor": "fb-10154073086866213", "service": "fb", "text": "I dislike correcting people's grammar or my own grammar for certain kinds of trivial mistakes (such as 'less' vs. 'fewer'), but I have an irresistible impulse to do it anyway (at least in my head). I even mentally correct people when they use words correctly--any time someone says 'less' I instantly assume that they should have said 'fewer' even if they actually shouldn't've.", "timestamp": "1486921962"}]}