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Feral Finster's avatar

Note how our society privileges the symbolic and the abstract over the concrete and material.

This is because it's a lot easier to set up diversity committees or think up new names that gloss over unpleasantness, than it is to address uncomfortable realities and attack entrenched interests.

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alkali's avatar

There is currently a vogue among historians for saying "enslaved persons" rather than "slaves" for similar reasons. It takes a great leap of imagination to believe that someone who sees the word "slave" and somehow doesn't understand that slavery is a moral horror will nevertheless be enlightened by the term "enslaved person."

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