verbiage

“english, mother fucker, do you speak it?!?” – samuel l. jackson, pulp fiction

we don’t just speak it, we “weaponize” it. it’s all in your terminology. one man’s “illegal” is another man’s “undocumented”. when the other party speaks and is wrong, they “lied”. when it’s the party you like, they “misinformed”.

but words are words and definitions are definitions and some common ones excuse uncommonly bad behavior. probably the second most misused word in the english language is “phobia”. the first most misused, of course, is literally the word “literally”, but never mind that now.

a “phobia” is a fear. while i have ZERO argument with the notion that the anti-trans rhetoric a lot of male politicians have adopted stems from a junior-highesque, “i’m not gay, YOU’RE gay” style response to finding a trans woman attractive at some point and then realizing they were trans and thinking that said attraction makes them homosexual. undoubtedly a similar reaction to some “rising to the occasion” incident during some sports thing got the anti-gay thing going, if not just straight repression against some former bff named “travis” or whatever. you’re not homoPHOBIC or transPHOBIC if you’re not cripplingly afraid of gay or trans folk. you’re just a fucking bigot. period. you’re the modern, less funny, more mean-spirited version of this guy:

three fun facts with this image:

3. i guess i’ve aged better than i give myself credit for!