Those are wonderful illustrative examples. I love a good illustrative example, and I have considered founding my own religion, so I could always go around and speak in parables :-D
You are right about the colloquial meaning of "irrational", and for that reason, I also prefer to use the term "non-rational" when talking about emotions, faith, intuition, and so on. But I don't think the word irrational in itself is ableist or despective, only a certain usage of it, and I do think it's a better alternative in many contexts.
It's unfortunate that a more accurate and politically correct term introduced or promoted to replace a despective word will gradually shift to occupy the place of the despective term, including all its connotations.
But really, what you're saying is that people have sloppy thinking about mental health issues and cognitive ability and lucidity because they are confirmed in those stereotypes daily by ableist attitudes permeating society. I am not seeing the word used in ableist ways because the word is vague or has shifted in meaning: I am seeing the word used in ableist ways because society is ableist and has shifted the meaning of the word to express a particular kind of irrationally caused by a flaw in cognitive processing.
I don't really care what word people use to talk about irrational anxieties. I care about using mental health issues to discredit opponents in debates. I care about using the circular argument that your emotions are opinions in disguise, so your emotions aren't valid; your opinions are based on emotions, so your opinions aren't valid; therefore nothing you just said is valid, and you should stfu and gtfo.
I don't think your explanation of the connotations of the word was derailing at all, and it's good to have it clarified so we all know what we're talking about. I just think it's correlation, not causation ;-)
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Re: 'irrational' and possible connotations
Date: 2010-01-08 09:35 pm (UTC)You are right about the colloquial meaning of "irrational", and for that reason, I also prefer to use the term "non-rational" when talking about emotions, faith, intuition, and so on. But I don't think the word irrational in itself is ableist or despective, only a certain usage of it, and I do think it's a better alternative in many contexts.
It's unfortunate that a more accurate and politically correct term introduced or promoted to replace a despective word will gradually shift to occupy the place of the despective term, including all its connotations.
But really, what you're saying is that people have sloppy thinking about mental health issues and cognitive ability and lucidity because they are confirmed in those stereotypes daily by ableist attitudes permeating society. I am not seeing the word used in ableist ways because the word is vague or has shifted in meaning: I am seeing the word used in ableist ways because society is ableist and has shifted the meaning of the word to express a particular kind of irrationally caused by a flaw in cognitive processing.
I don't really care what word people use to talk about irrational anxieties. I care about using mental health issues to discredit opponents in debates. I care about using the circular argument that your emotions are opinions in disguise, so your emotions aren't valid; your opinions are based on emotions, so your opinions aren't valid; therefore nothing you just said is valid, and you should stfu and gtfo.
I don't think your explanation of the connotations of the word was derailing at all, and it's good to have it clarified so we all know what we're talking about. I just think it's correlation, not causation ;-)