General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "Woke", "cancel culture", and the meaning of words [View all]StarfishSaver
(18,486 posts)It's what the people who first appropriated it 60 years ago coined it to mean and it's how it's been used for the last 60 years until a handful of white people "discovered" it and decided to be offended by it And then took it upon themselves to try to redefine it.
Most words and phrases have objective meanings. The fact that someone decides to interpret them differently is their problem. But when they do try to change the meaning of it to suit their own ends, they shouldn't whine about cancel culture when they're called on it.
Take the word racist. If I decided to call someone on this board a racist, I don't think I'd be given a pass by saying "That's not offensive at all. I'm using racist to mean something different than you think it means."
If Carvel wants to describe something as political purity, he should just say political purity rather than use a different term that has a completely different long established meaning - at least if he wants to be understood.