Conversation

I wonder if it is even possible to craft language that doesn’t implicitly legitimate *some* pattern of institutionalized structural power. This I think is the fatal weakness of even good-faith wokegramming. Language operations can only move power gradients around, not level them.
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This was one of the things I struggled most with when writing Radical Candor. Power is bad. Hierarchy is inevitable. How can we write about hierarchy while showing it's a job not a value judgement that entitles us to hold others in contempt??
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Even if it were not possible to use language in a way that totally flattened power gradients, if it were possible in some cases to reduce the differential marginally it might still be a valuable exercise. Or it might not, power gradients might be okay.
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If imputing unconscious motivations and attributing unstated assertions is “fair” play, then no, it’s impossible. It’s universally applicable and unfalsifiable. It’s like fundamentalist religion.
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