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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   16082 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022

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The historian Timothy Snyder says names are part of an overreaching colonial process. But how much can it matter? What's in a name? Do Slavs think worse of the Germans who they call mute (Nemcy, Lenard Nemoy's last name means mute)? Do we think worse of the Slavs whose name gives us slave?

I would say the desire to control the language of the other side comes from feelings of inferiority and new found power. Mexicans use the phrase "fucking gringos" all the time without Americans getting particularly upset about it. I'm sure the Poles have some names for the Germans that aren't particularly nice. I bet in India there are a few nasty nicknames for the English.

The more interesting case is the Falkland Islands where it's the leftish side refusing to let the locals name something and pushing "Islas Malvinas" for the past 250 years.

I would say the desire to control the language of the other side comes from feelings of inferiority and new found power.

I think that it mostly comes from status anxiety which kind of overlaps with your "feelings of inferiority". Where a lion might not care what sheep think of him, ridicule is a narcissist's kryptonite. They don't like being ignored, they don't like being insulted, and they absolutely hate being reminded that they are not all that important.

Mexicans use the phrase "fucking gringos" all the time without Americans getting particularly upset about it.

Mexicans also don't get particularly offended about complaining about "all these Mexicans", either. White Anglo-Americans in close contact with Mexican-Americans don't get particularly offended in large part because it's known that they can take it as well as they dish it out.

Blacks ranting about evil whitey engender a different reaction, for the same reasons, despite also being in a firmly subordinate position economically.

The more interesting case is the Falkland Islands where it's the leftish side refusing to let the locals name something and pushing "Islas Malvinas" for the past 250 years.

Being less white(although, is Argentina still less white than Britain? They probably were in the 80's, but are they today?) does not actually make you leftist.

It's good right up until it isn't. The gf who laughs at Mexicant laughs right up until she reports you.

In my experience people who make a point of saying Malvinas in English are on the left and come at the issue from a general anti-colonial / anti-English framework without much specific knowledge about the situation.

If you're ever talking with older AWFLs who cut their political teeth in the 80s they'll be firm on the Falklands War and the sinking of the Belgrano being examples of horrible illegal things Thatcher did.

The younger, more race focussed, leftist crowd either goes along with them or is just unfamiliar with the issue.

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