Re: relative weirdness (was Re: signal and noise ...)
| From: | Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, December 16, 2001, 23:05 |
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Quoting Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg.rhiemeier@...>:
> Adam Walker <dreamertwo@...> wrote:
> > And what on earth has *that* got to do with the price of tea in
> > China? I'm a Protestant Fundamentalist missionary. And I conlang
> > like a looney-bird. [....]
>
> Well, perhaps "fundamentalists" was the wrong word. I am aware about
> the fact that in U.S. usage, "fundamentalism" often refers to a certain
> brand of Protestantism which is named after some manifesto that had
> the word "fundament" in its title, or something like that, and that
> this usage does not necessarily imply intolerance or anti-creativity
> fanaticism.
>
> On our side of the Atlantic, this usage is virtually unknown, and the
> term "fundamentalist" refers to someone who uses a religion as an
> excuse for hatred and intolerance, especially towards people who
> appreciate distractions that add more fun and colour to life.
In the US, the word has a lot of conotations. In its most basic
meaning, it means someone who interprets the words of the Bible
(or Koran, or other religious text) as literally as possible; these
would include young-Earth creationists and such. Due to the
conflict between literalists and nonliteralists in school sytems
and in the public arena, the word has become politicized, and is often
used as little more than a term of abuse by those who happen to
disbelieve in literalism so as to stereotype literalists as hate-filled
and intolerant. (The other side of the political divide have their
own terms of abuse and stereotypes, naturally.)
=====================================================================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...> <http://home.uchicago.edu/~trwier>
"...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637 Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers