False metonymy: when a thing stands in for a larger thing that isn’t actually a thing
What examples come to mind based on this abstract definition?
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This is a decent example
A lot of people are pointing to vague categories rather than well-defined things that stand in for non-existent categories
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Replying to @vgr
The English Constitution would seem to be one of the ur-examples of this. Insofar as the thing does legally exist, but what it represents is an abstracted conception of common law with no coherent identity or definitive “completeness” in itself.
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Feels like I’m not getting the question across clearly. For example “DC” is a true metonymy for “US federal government” which is a fuzzy but real thing.
“Area 52” might be a good example… metonymy for a vast alien research military industrial complex that doesn’t actually exist
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Lot of examples in racism and anti-semitism. For example, people refer to the influence of George Soros or The Rothschilds as a way of avoiding overtly referring to Jews as a group which would make their prejudice obvious.
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Replying to
The English Constitution would seem to be one of the ur-examples of this. Insofar as the thing does legally exist, but what it represents is an abstracted conception of common law with no coherent identity or definitive “completeness” in itself.
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One can appeal to the constitution legally, but the full corpus of what the constitution “is” (or, said another way, the full body of precedent that theoretically makes up the constitution) is undefined.
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