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July 8, 2013

Shamans

The shamans of contemporary linguistic taboos have adopted nigger, faggot, cunt, and the other forbidden words as passwords, emblems of group membership -- and membership, as American Express has been at pains to remind us, has its privileges. No one outside the shamans' circle is permitted to speak the password; it's an arrogation of a jealously guarded status. He who dares must be cut down, ground into the dust, and forbidden ever to speak at all, to any effect, in any context. For as in all systems of nymic magic, the word is deemed congruent with the thing: the taboo words are at the root of the shamans' power. Failure to enforce the taboo would risk the loss of the group's privileges and immunities, laboriously amassed over the decades of exploitation of others' guilt. -- Liberty's Torch: Shamans

Posted by gerardvanderleun at July 8, 2013 4:00 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

The link is corrupted here; the correct link is

http://bastionofliberty.blogspot.com/2012/08/shamans.html

Posted by: Rob De Witt at July 8, 2013 4:19 PM

Therefore, I demand that redneck, cracker, honky, ofay, whitey, etc. be reserved for use by us Persons of Pallor (i.e. paler that a paper bag) exclusively. Unauthorized use should be greeted with mockery: "Soul Brother, you wouldn't know a cracker if you stole it from a parrot."

Posted by: mike anderson at July 8, 2013 5:02 PM

I don't mind so much words being considered socially unacceptable or rude; that's always been true. My problem is which words, and why, and why others are perfectly fine, like "teabagger."

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at July 8, 2013 9:48 PM

Sticks and stones may break my bones
but names will never hurt me.

Remember that. The part about the sticks and stones.

Posted by: chasmatic at July 9, 2013 11:56 AM

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