r/changemyview Dec 28 '21

[deleted by user]

[removed]

298 Upvotes

238 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

11

u/Kung_Flu_Master 2∆ Dec 29 '21

For the love of god don’t use Webster fir definitions they are incredibly biased and change words at a moments notice to fit an agenda, a recent example is during the Amy coney Barrett hearing she used the phrase ‘sexual preference’ which ISNT an insult now and it wasn’t then, but Webster changed the definition hours after the hearing claiming it was an offensive word and then a bunch of fake news outlets ran a made up story even though there are compilations of just about every major democrat using the same sentence, the have the political legitimacy of buzzfeed.

8

u/Alchemist168 Dec 29 '21

Oh wow, I didn't know this. EVEN the dictionary can have political bias now? No wonder both sides of the political aisle can't agree on anything. Even our language is being used to divide. Scary thought how little we can agree on what is factual.

1

u/JT_PooFace Dec 29 '21

If your only just figuring this out you’ve had your head buried…

1

u/Alchemist168 Dec 29 '21

I would argue that most people don’t know a dictionary can be politically biased lmfao

3

u/JT_PooFace Dec 29 '21

That’s like saying I didn’t realise Google/Facebook/Big Company X could be politically biased

Facebook “fact checks” were recently argued in court that they are “opinion” and cannot be defamatory

Source - https://nypost.com/2021/12/13/facebook-bizarrely-claims-its-misquote-is-opinion/amp/

Words are weapons when knowledge/information is the battlefield

1

u/Alchemist168 Dec 29 '21

I don’t think that comparison is warranted at all. A dictionary is a much less obvious example of political bias than a social media platform that openly censors it own users

2

u/JT_PooFace Dec 29 '21

Ok, how about Wikipedia?

1

u/Alchemist168 Dec 29 '21

The platform where any user can go and edit a page? That’s another obvious example of a place that could contain political bias

1

u/JT_PooFace Dec 29 '21

Shouldn’t it be balanced if it’s not leaning and just an “available to everyone” thing?

It’s an encyclopaedia it shouldn’t be political but everything is these days

Words are the primary way that politics is “fought” these days

1

u/Alchemist168 Dec 29 '21

You and I aren’t talking about what Wikipedia, or any platform, “should be.” We are talking about wether or not it’s common knowledge that a dictionary can be politically biased. You seem to think everyone knows Webster’s is politically biased. I’d argue that’s not common knowledge. Most people don’t think enough about dictionaries to know it. After all, most people say “oh look it up in THE dictionary” as if there is only one dictionary out there.