Plumbing the depths of Joe the Plumber's "dictionary

[Laurence Horn]

On Mar 9, 2012, at 9:10 AM, Ronald Butters wrote:

> Sounds like word games to me. This is no different than if he had said, "It's fine to call them faggots, because that just means a stick of wood." "It's fine to call them niggers, cuz that just means black."

There's that, and also the point Ron raised earlier, on the difference between _queer_ as an adjective (especially when it's describing something inanimate or abstract) and _queer_ as a noun (not only as a vocative slur, but in the "Jimmy's a queer" example).  This gets back to the power of nouns to categorize, which makes them especially useful for slurs, as discussed by Bolinger (calling someone a fatso, or a deserter, rather than calling them fat, or saying they deserted).  And even when it's not a slur, the noun is stronger, whence the "he's a Jew" vs. "he's Jewish" distinction we've just been (re)touching on.

Perhaps calling someone *a* queer rather than calling them queer could be described as "dropping a hard Q".

LH 
> 
>> I can't judge Joe's response fully without seeing his original statement
>> about "queer."  If it was entirely innocuous, he could have said "Yeah, I
>> stand by my statement because all I meant was...."
>> 
>> If the original had included Ron's explanation, I'd agree that Sambolin was
>> "playing word games." Otherwise no.
>> 
>> What I heard Joe say on CNN yesterday boiled down to:
>> 
>> "Homosexuals are Americans and should be allowed to work too. Just keep
>> 'em away from my kids because...you know.  And it's fine to call 'em
>> 'queers,' because that only means 'unusual.' It isn't a slur. Also, just
>> because I'm running for public office and consented to appear on your show
>> to boost my own candidacy doesn't mean you can ask anything you
>> damn-well please about public statements of mine.  What is this, another
>> left-wing-liberal media lynching?  You know, I think it is!"
>> 
>> In a different interview, the new editor of the late Andrew Breitbart's
>> blog suggested strongly that Soledad O'Brien is a black racist.
>> 
>> JL
>> 
>> On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 5:36 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>> 
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Plumbing the depths of Joe the Plumber's "dictionary
>>> 
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73772.html
>>>> 
>>>> Things only got worse when Sambolin cited some of Wurzelbacher's
>>>> previous statements about homosexuality, including his claim that the
>>>> word "queer" is not a slur, as well as his declaration that he would
>>>> not allow homosexuals "anywhere near my children."
>>>> 
>>>> "Have you changed your positions on this at all?" Sambolin asked.
>>>> 
>>>> "So this is TMZ, this isn't CNN, is what you're saying," Wurzelbacher
>>>> shot back.
>>>> 
>>>> "Of course it's CNN. These are things that you said, that I would like
>>>> to know if you still stand by them or if you have changed your
>>>> positions on them."
>>>> 
>>>> "Listen, in my dictionary, and everyone's dictionary in the 1970s, the
>>>> word queer did mean strange and unusual. There was no slur to it. Do
>>>> you challenge that?" the congressional candidate said, before adding,
>>>> "Come on, you're trying to do a 'gotcha' moment, it's quite obvious."
>>>> 
>>> 
>>>   VS-)
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>> 
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