The imporatnce of reading comprehension
Man, Vox really stepped in it today.
The perpetually-offended saw the words “holocaust” and “deportation” in the same article, and went nuts. “Vox is a nazi, and wants to kill immigrants”. Yeah, nice reading skills there, moonbat.
Jeff Goldstein is always blogging about who is the final arbiter of meaning in communication. He argues (and I concur) that meaning is owned by the “speaker” (or writer, as in this case). He also argues against the technique the left uses, which is to subvert intentionalism by imposing their own meaning on that which they hear. In so doing, they can immediately recast any argument in their favor, and discredit anyone who disagrees with them. It’s a remarkably efficient way to end a discussion and walk away with the smug satisfaction of having defeated one’s inferiors.
Or not.
Back to Vox. He tears into the stupids here, and here. And there is a common thread amongst the moonbats that attack. By defining the holocaust exclusively in terms of its outcome (shitloads of dead people), all discussion of the holocaust becomes invalid, and the discusser is necessarily cast as a genocidal nazi bastard. After all, if you are using the holocaust to prove a point, you must want to kill lots of people. But, if you actually read the words as they were written, you’ll find that the only comparison made, and the only meaning assigned by the author is that George W. Bush is full of shit.
Which, I mean, you’d expect the moonbats to be on board with. Especially when that criticism comes from a right-winger. But, such is the hate that the moonbats have for Mr. Vox that they would much rather assign their own sinister meanings to his writings thus: “he’s white, and has short hair - he must be a nazi. We know what he really means.”
I don’t know why I’m stepping on Jeff’s gig, or why I’m defending Vox. Probably because they’re both right, and the moonbats are all wrong. I suspect, however, it’s because I’m sick to death of people assigning their own meanings to what I say and what I write, and I’m not going to take it any longer.