What Words and Their Meanings Tell Us

In the final installment of a three-part series on language, we look at an example of the way words and their meanings are determined by socio-historical forces. In our case study, we see that individuals can come to view the same word as meaning something completely different.

Read the full script here:
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Narration, script, and editing by M. Thank you to N for reviewing the script.
Animated intro by Jack, co-host of the Auxiliary Statements podcast @AuxStatements on Twitter.
Intro music by Charles Tristan:
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Patreon:
Twitter:
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References:
Carlucci, A. (2015). Gramsci and Languages: Unification, Diversity, Hegemony. Haymarket Books.
Lecercle, J.-J. (2009). A Marxist Philosophy of Language (G. Elliott, Trans.). Haymarket Books.
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[DiMadHatter]

i think its important to remember that words don't have [intrinsic] meaning, they have usages, and usages change over space, time, context, etc.

[Marxism_Today]

Haven't gotten a chance to sit down and watch this final installment yet, but I offer this sacrificial comment to the algorithm gods that they may boost your glorious videos!

[calebr]

God, that chart at 3:05 is so frustrating, I've seen that same argument so many times. So many anti socialists just hate the way capitalism works, they just call it socialism.

[dhue]

I was shocked to see you have so few views, considering the quality of your videos. I have no doubt your channel will explode. I'm happy I found it.

[VocalBear]

The best term (a word in a narrower, more specific meaning) is one that reflects the reality in our minds the best. there is no need for many words to reflect the same phenomenon as well as it's fallacious to use the same word for different phenomena.

And that's what makes TIK's (check out the first 30 minutes of public vs private) or other "free" market supporters hilarious - the presuppositions for all their systems of thought are umbrella terms that have no concrete reflection in the reality - free, freedom, voluntary trade, dictatorship, totalitarian, left vs right (one that Marxists unfortunately still use for some stupid reason), etc

[auxiliarystatements]

Really useful set of episodes - thanks for making these!!

[beeinthehive]

I've experienced this often at work. "I'm tired of being controlled by the rich... I'm sick of the owner's stupid ideas that never work, I wish we (workers) controlled things... I'm tired of rent being so high... We need to have healthcare and medicine not based on profit..." Etc. Then they claim it's socialism and we need more capitalism. Some of it is the Dunning-Krueger Effect, and it becomes cemented in through confirmation bias... Among other things.

[yesman]

always nice to see a new video from this channel

[ChristoffelTensors]

I bought the Lecercle book based on last video. Can't wait.

[Glass-vfil]

Great video. Can you elaborate on the “good slogans are correct slogans” bit?

[ethanjensen]

Language has some corruption, but mostly it's an incredible tool that people get to use to cooperate together! :)

[psikeyhackr]

The Tyranny of Words by Stuart Chase

George Orwell mentioned Chase in an essay about politics. Chase was a member of FDR's "brain trust" and wrote the book A New Deal.

[StuMas]

Very appropriate to current times. Woman, gender, life, freedom, law, inflation and recession to name but a few words also suffering a bout of identity crisis.

[awkwardbound]

Deus Ex Algorithmus, have my comment as sacrifice and please bless us this one instance.

[jackhamilton]

Could be used as a fantastic justification for dictating speech and forcing people to change the way they speak.

[Woow_Dude]

Algorithm needs sacriface btw good video

[Williamsdshs]

How is language fundamentally political? Explain to me how the word "grass" would have been political to a hunter gatherer tribe 12, 000 years ago.

[Just-Human]

The problem with philosophy. No one person agrees on everything.

[manuellanthaler]

Dude really I hope you read that. Im extremely smart. Like up to moon and back kind of smart. But can you if you say something like diametrically opposed what that word even means? I always have to google the words while watching your videos. Diametrically opposed was an easy exanple. Im not and english native speaker...(ironically speaking it better than a lot of americans) but i just guess some words are really hard to grasp. Can you write the definition like that somewhere in the video? Like *this means... *diametrical opposed means: ... whatever. Thanks. I know to you intellectual higher people I may sound stupid or whatever. But I want to actually understand the video and not just act like I understand while I dont have any clue at all. Einstein said you only truly understand something if you can explain it to a 5 year old. And thats it. I want to understand it that far. And this change would make it easier for me thank you in advance.

[animeiseva]

This video is too short. I only watch 30+ minute video essays by liberals. Disliked!