On Changing The Meaning Of Words

I overheard a co-worker talking and I have to skip on the context but it was not the time or place to confront her (and I will not revisit the conversation later.) This employee is easily distracted and if you talk to her too much, she will not get her work done and I am not the sort of guy who has to win every argument.


Anyway, she said "To me, freedom does not mean doing whatever I want..." She then proceeded with some PC psychobabble about given choices and it's up to all of us to make the right choice because with freedom comes responsibility.


Some words require judgment. If someone is called obstinate or belligerent or ridiculous, the labeler usually has to explain how he arrived at said conclusion. But other words are concrete in their meanings. Cold is the absence of heat. Darkness is the absence of light. Freedom is the absence of constraint. There doesn't seem to be much wiggle room with these words.


I know how the co-worker thinks. She likes the word 'freedom' but not the definition because that can lead to things like oh I don't know, gun ownership maybe. But what red blooded American dislikes freedom? We all love freedom, right? But we don't necessarily like the definition. So we develop our own meanings.


In 2008 I remember a gentlemanly local radio host, Dan Rea, who is a lawyer and who will generally call BS, BS, redefined racism. As in, it would be racist to vote against Obama because of his race but it would not be racist to vote for Obama because of his race. For better or worse, racism has a specific meaning and it would be racist to vote for Obama either because of his race or to vote against Obama because of his race. The English language does have a few rules of the road.


The Left loves the term 'racist.' They feel strongly that they own the word. Spike Lee infamously stated that black people could not be racist. Affirmative action implicitly says the same thing. 'Racist' and 'racism' are property of the Left and they will use it as a weapon as best they see fit.


That conversation would echo around in my head for a long, long time if I did not put in down on blogpaper. Thanks for bearing with me.