> On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 5:12 PM, Michael Smith <mjs at smithbowen.net> wrote:
>
> > The praxis was largely, as far as I could tell, a matter of
> > policing diction -- certain words and phrases were disapproved-of,
> > including a good many ancient vernacular expressions.
>
> True kinda, but that's also a convenient caricature, one that binds
> the right to the muscular left.
What I had in mind was more to unbind the left -- as I understand that term -- from something that isn't really very left at all. "Binding to the right" is certainly not a goal; but when they've got their fangs into some indefensible fetlock, leave 'em to chew it, I say.
> power relationships are revealed and transmitted through
> language, something I know you recognize.
Yes. The *analysis* of language is very valuable. Spent some time on it myself. Policing it, less so.
-- --
Michael J. Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://www.cars-suck.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com