It's important to take responsibility for the things we say but we do also need to take responsibility for our perceptions of what others do
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We can have different opinions on whether an intended meaning is, eg racist, but not what the intended meaning was.
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eg, My neighbour in the 90s: I'm not racist but I don't want Pakis next door. Me: That is racist tho. Her: No, it's not.
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Here, we both accept her meaning is that she doesn't want to live next door to Pakistanis but we disagree on whether that's racist. (FFS)
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If it was: I don't want ppl who play loud rap music late at night next door. That's code for 'no black people'. No, it isn't! Yes, it is.
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Then the second person has changed the first's meaning & if 1st clarifies she's not making a racist assumption, she's the authority on that.
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This is one of those things which should be obvious but seems not to be to very many people.
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Of course, this is due to the belief in an unconscious bias we all have. 'You can't see it yourself but I can coz I understand these things'
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Of course, we do all have unconscious biases but these are rarely uncovered by other people with explicit ideological biases of their own.
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End of conversation
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If they can't clarify a point beyond our perceived understanding, at what point do we have to take them at their word then?
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Not talking about whether they are able to clarify their meaning but about them being the only one who knows what it is.
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I understand your point, & people should be able to clarify, but there are many times when people need to be taken at their own words.
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People can certainly backpedal & lie about their intended meaning, yes, and sometimes their original meanings matters. More often not.
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This isn't really what 'death of the author' - a piece of hyperbolic rhetoric - is about. More how readers bring their own meanings to texts
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I know. That's why I specified 'in general conversation.' I've argued before that this has broken its moorings & become more general.
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That the idea we create our own meaning of words & they're just as valid as the author's has become twisted & used to serve political ends
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There's a point here though where it becomes "how can anyone know what anyone else means?"
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Kinda, but the author can only apologize for what their meaning is, not how others interpreted it.
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That's my point, yes.
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I just woke up. Brain is working.
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It needs tea.
End of conversation
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