Empty Labels (was Re: Butler, Nussbaum, Paglia)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Carrol wrote:
>It is because I put so much emphasis on theoretical reflection that
>I am engaged in my present campaign of everyone on these lists
>who engages in poisoning the wells of discourse by substituting
>empty labels like "elitist" or "pomo" for the description, naming,
>and critique of concrete positions. (To call such procedures
>"generalizations" is as misleading as calling cyanide "merely
>a chemical." True, but the excuse of a scoundrel.)

I agree that empty labels are no good and function merely as figures of
speech. Can we focus on this problem in a separate thread, without mixing
it up with your or anyone else's judgment of any poster's writing? If
examples of empty labels are needed for illustrations of the problem, we
may take them from some published articles, books, etc. That way, we may
get a useful discussion going.

Yoshie