Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Response to DelGandio's Chapter 3

The importance of language:
DelGandio dedicates chapter 3 entirely to how language affects not only how we communicate, but also how language 'changes our realities'. DelGandio begins by addressing how language affects identity, including race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. This follows from his claim that language creates new realities, we dictate our identity by how we choose to communicate. He then moves to how language can be used negatively, such as with propaganda and through the distortion of the meaning of words, like political correctness (PC). DelGandio analyzes these strategies and identifies how to fight against them. Following these lengthy analyses, he concludes by wrapping up his 'words create realities' claim, arguing that notably, the creation of new words can create new realities.
All in all, I agree with DelGandio that words do affect our 'reality' and that they can be part of the foundation of it. While his analyses were helpful in identifying propaganda and the like, I would have enjoyed a section dedicated to the application of how we are supposed to use language moving forward with activism. He seems to hint at this with the concluding section, listing a few contemporary definitions that are part of the activist community, but how should we use these to 'create new realities'?

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