Evolution of an X-ial
Jan. 16th, 2012 02:23 pmThe steps in evolution of an X-ial:
1. I think X.
2. I am an X-thinker.
3. I am an X-ial.
4. X-ial-ism is cool.
5. I think X, but I'm not one of those freaky X-ials.
Or, in other words, to some people "atheist" means "doesn't believe in God", and to some people it means "like Richard Dawkins". These people often have conversations like:
And then they both think the other person is an idiot. They're really cross with each other, even though they substantially agree, because they're using the same word to mean quite different things, because they've both picked up the meaning from context, or from a dictionary, and just assumed that the connotations they saw used most often were the most important part of the word.
See also "do submarines swim" (depends what you mean by 'swim'), "is ice hockey hocky, or just like hockey" (depends what you mean by 'hockey'), "are you a feminist" (etc etc). See also http://lesswrong.com/lw/nm/disguised_queries/.
The example I saw last week was a reasonably good rap video saying basically "Religion sucks. Believe in Jesus". To my ears, that just sounds bizarre. But there's apparently a significant target audience for whom the negative connotations of "religion" outweigh the "believe in supernatural" aspects.
I think, not identifying with any group ever is over the top as a response, but I can see why someone would feel like that. Certainly be cautious at thinking of yourself as the sort of person who does "X": make sure that IS who you want to be, and whether or not you buy into all the aspects of X, or only the obvious ones.
1. I think X.
2. I am an X-thinker.
3. I am an X-ial.
4. X-ial-ism is cool.
5. I think X, but I'm not one of those freaky X-ials.
Or, in other words, to some people "atheist" means "doesn't believe in God", and to some people it means "like Richard Dawkins". These people often have conversations like:
| What they say | What the other person hears |
|---|---|
| Are you atheist? | Are you a humorless religion hater? |
| I'm not an atheist, I just don't believe in God | I believe in God, I just don't believe in God |
And then they both think the other person is an idiot. They're really cross with each other, even though they substantially agree, because they're using the same word to mean quite different things, because they've both picked up the meaning from context, or from a dictionary, and just assumed that the connotations they saw used most often were the most important part of the word.
See also "do submarines swim" (depends what you mean by 'swim'), "is ice hockey hocky, or just like hockey" (depends what you mean by 'hockey'), "are you a feminist" (etc etc). See also http://lesswrong.com/lw/nm/disguised_queries/.
The example I saw last week was a reasonably good rap video saying basically "Religion sucks. Believe in Jesus". To my ears, that just sounds bizarre. But there's apparently a significant target audience for whom the negative connotations of "religion" outweigh the "believe in supernatural" aspects.
I think, not identifying with any group ever is over the top as a response, but I can see why someone would feel like that. Certainly be cautious at thinking of yourself as the sort of person who does "X": make sure that IS who you want to be, and whether or not you buy into all the aspects of X, or only the obvious ones.