Over on Chateau Heartiste, everybody’s favorite pickup-artist-turned-racist-shithead-with-delusions-of-literary-grandeur Heartiste is getting pretty worked up about Confederate statues and, er, high-speed rail.
The Confederate statues being torn down across the South are just the latest battle fronts opened up by shitlibs who obey the credo that a good offense is the best defense. As the shitlib religion sits on a very shaky foundation that the Maul-Right is currently rupturing with seismic waves of realtalk, it behooves shitlibs to press their hate machine forward, into enemy territory bla bla bla blabbity blab blab bloo bloo.
Ok, I got a little bored there, and you probably did too. He finally comes to the point:
The lesson: never give the Left an inch. They’ll take a parsec. Confederate statues today, books authored by White men tomorrow, until it finally reaches end game: second class status for all Whites outside of a few Acela elites who sufficiently grovel at the altar of anti-Whitism.
Acela elites? Acela is a regional “high speed” rail line on the east coast that can only run at top speed on less than 30 miles of track because our rail infrastructure is so crappy. Apparently the people who ride it are all seeekret Soros race-traitor Illuminati who conduct dark anti-white rituals on the train’s altar cars. Who knew?
@Lucrece!
Forgive me i just saw your other comment about feeling depressed. I didnt mean that i would upset anyone saying this word annoyed me!. Because it not that anyway, just morons trying to sound smart. You already smart! You use this word naturally!
@Lucrece
There is something to be said for the joy of using exactly the right word you meant to say at the moment you intended to say it, yes.
@Major Francesca:
I’ve never played Kancolle either, but long before I became an otaku, I was (and remain) a WW2 naval buff, so this bizarre little property landed right in my wheelhouse (am I using that expression correctly?).
For anyone else who shares my interest in the WW2 Imperial Navy, I suggest this site.
@Lucrece
One of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me ^ω^
May my energizing feel good waves pass over you the rest of the day, and be good to yourself, buddy *hugs*
@Lucrece,
I, too, use the word “behoove” on a fairly regular basis; it’s a wonderful word.
You are far from alone.
@ Lucrece:
@ Axecalibur:
I’ve encountered a fair amount of random hostility and dismissal in my life because I prefer to carefully choose my vocabulary and syntax, and people sometimes think that’s pretentious. But it doesn’t deter me, because I don’t regard education or the willingness to wield it as shameful. I don’t choose my words in order to impress anyone else, but simply because they’re my words, and I want them to express my thoughts and feelings as accurately as possible. If people like how I express myself, great! If they don’t, that’s fine too.
Anyhow, it’s not pretentious to communicate thusly if that’s how one genuinely thinks. Maybe it’d be pretentious for them to use such words or grammar; that doesn’t mean it’s pretentious for everyone else to do so. I’m not interested in embodying anyone else’s limitations; I have enough of my own already. 😉
Also, “behoove” is an excellent word, with precise denotation and connotation.
@Ivory Bill
This isn’t my proudest moment, but I kinda liked Strike Witches for similar reasons, and, yes, you are using that word correctly.
I’m part of the group of Mammotheers who are interested in the World Wars. WWII was my original interest before I became interested in World War 1 about five years ago upon first encountering Jaroslav Hasek’s famout WWI novel, “The Good Soldier Svejk”.
Consider, if you will, the fact that I used to play Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe for hours online and had a roleplay squadron with other people.
I say “this isn’t my proudest moment” because Strike Witches has become something of a punchline of a joke nowadays. It’s considered somewhat ridiculous. Can’t really argue with that premise, either. It is ridiculous.
@Lucrece
If you like the word then you like the word and nothing I say can take that away from you (nor would I want it to do so). And I was one of those people who would just literally sit down and read the dictionary from time to time, which led to some hi-lar-ious instances of mispronunciation when I was young, when I tried to use fancy words I’d read and understood but had never heard pronounced. I cringe to this day.
However, it’s hard to deny that certain words signify “I am more educated than you are,” and are used in that manner, purposefully, by people who want to project an ugly classism. When Valentine says that they only hear this word from people like Heartiste and Davis Aurini, that’s the voice of classism. Davis Aurini, as I’m sure you know, is known for literally sitting in an armchair with a glass of whiskey and a cigarette (or sometimes e-cig) in his hands, and a bookcase and a plastic skull visible behind him while he pontificates. It’s like every stereotype of “educated upper-class gentlemen” was rolled together and fashioned into human form, baked until done, and then given life by a trickster god. He does it on purpose because he wants to think he’s in a position to look down on others, who don’t use the same vocabulary.
By all means use the words that make you happy, but not everyone who uses them has an innocent motive, and it is not a reflection on you to recognize that.
@Valentine
Gosh! Not made depressed by your comments AT ALL! I hav bipolar II disorder and am going through one of the regular depressive phases.
This and everything else you said is spot on. People who use words to seem clever, rather than as a natural part of their vocabulary, really do stand out like a sore thumb. Mostly it’s because they subtly misuse those words. But even though it’s subtle, people who don’t actually know the word will often feel like it jars them.
I still encourage you to use words like “behoove” – just make sure you know how and it wwilll be fine! ?
@PoM
I use a vaporizer.
Your whole post made me feel like I should dress up as a Gothic Lolita, sit behind a desk with a skull on it, and talk about pro-Social Justice causes.
A…a sort of anti-Aurini, if you will. I can drone on for a while about things we talk about in this blog, as I’m sure we all know.
ETA:
I forgot the central point of my post: so, I should Youtube myself vaping and doing all these things and etc.
@Fran
For accuracy, you need to pretend to flick the ashes off your cigarette simulacrum every few seconds. Yes, he’s done that.
@PoM
Fuck.
That…ugh.
Okay, so, like, my vaporizer is a big heavy thing. It’s like half a TV remote, or a very large pager, if y’all can still remember those.
It does not remotely look like a cigarette. It just looks like an electrical box.
Like that.
Also, I try to turn down the voltage so I don’t exhale huge clouds. I use my vape to deliver nicotine or THC quickly, not to fucking show off, and I don’t want it to hurt my throat.
ETA:
The moral of the story is that this guy is basically the person that makes people who vape look bad. That is this guy. It’s he.
@Axe
Aw, thanks!
@Policy of Madness
Yes, yes, and yes! That’s why I get grief about my language use these days, because people like Aurini think they can use it like a prop, a skull or a glass of tinted water or a smoking jacket, to enhance their credibility. We don’t have to buy in to what he’s selling, though. Not in that regard. Laughing at Aurini and others for using ‘big words’ to seem credible doesn’t mean we should scorn all users of such things. I just want for the association to be less automatic, that’s all.
Thanks again for the insightful commentary!
I’m off to finish some uni assignments.
@ Policy of Madness:
I agree that some words and phrases can imply this kind of comparison, but I definitely disagree that they innately must indicate this.
Yes, snobs exist. Yes, many people like to make others feel smaller and lesser and weaker, to attain some kind of social dominance. And sure, those groups of people can manifest (or pretend to) a haughty intellectualism as a means of displaying their superiority, or more accurately of trying to make others feel inferior.
Speaking for myself though… I don’t feel any need to prove that I’m smarter (or better, or funnier, or more attractive, or whatever) than anyone else. The only person I’m competing with is myself. My desire to be my smartest, best, funniest, most attractive (and most whatever) self isn’t indicative of any sort of desired comparison with other people.
@Lucrece
))) i will try to use behooves maybe. But if i say here no one will understand. I will check in my dictionary if there similar translation i can use. (I checked, seems not correct, but then i am still not sure what is correct use of behooves)
I think you can naturally read when someone is writing abnormal or unnatural to impress some people, i can read from you and people here it is natural. I am only angry when i reading RoK and heartiste and Aurini and others same like them.
@Collateral Thought
I’m pretty much going to stick by my assertion that there are words in English that carry this signifier. Not “innately,” but because that’s how they are used. It’s debatable whether “behooves” in particular belongs in that set, but if you’re going to argue that there are literally no words at all that are in that set, we’re going to disagree.
Are you taking my criticism of Aurini et. al. personally? May I ask why?
@Collateral
I am Guilty of snobbery. I actually try to be good at everything and hone my tastes to affect only the highest quality of things.
However, my defense is this: you can’t go through life hearing about how you are inferior because your nose is slanted like this, instead of slanted like that, like all the famous Greek Philosophers, and not internalize some of it and seek to prove these people wrong, even though this particularly quest to avenge myself is particularly wrongheaded and foolish, I realize.
M. Voltaire
I, personally, have no problem with my style of writing being considered pretentious. Cos it fuckin is. Not all the time, but when I start getting poetic, there’s no stopping me. I totally get why some folks don’t like it, but, so long as my pretension can be read and has summat to say, then I did it right. Wearing it like a damn badge 🙂
@Axe
I, too tend to be pretentious, though, because I’m a nice lady and try to make others feel good, I’ve been toning this back a bit.
To put it politely, every damn Confederate statue and monument is the same thing, over and over.
“Eff you, negro,” writ in stone.
@Fran
Maybe you could make like your vaporizer is a tobacco pipe and feign knocking ashes out of the bowl.
@ Policy of Madness:
To the first question: not in the slightest. I do not in any way identify with him or his movement or his beliefs or his supporters.
To the second question: do feel free to ask! I’ll answer the implied question: why am I defending the use of these words in general? Because I like and enjoy them! I’m a linguist and a writer. I find the careful expression of specific meanings and emotions is facilitated by the use of appropriate words. Sure, some of that has to do with what audience you’re aiming your speech towards (if you’re even doing so); I curate my vocabulary according to the setting, as most of us do. You folks are generally very well educated and intelligent, so I don’t hold back here.
I also defend those words because I’m an anti-anti-intellectual. I find the modern (largely conservative) anti-intellectualism wearisome and counterproductive. That’s not any sort of dig at you, by the way; I’m just explaining why I take this stance.
I find Aurini’s pseudo-intellectualism obnoxious, because he struggles to use words that he clearly doesn’t really comprehend or feel comfortable with (and I find the views he’s trying to express noxious, but that’s another topic). And maybe that’s the issue that you’re poking at, and I’m talking around above: the imprecise or overly affected use of rare words is pretentious. It’s generally classist. I certainly don’t approve of or support it. I agree with you there.
But I also don’t want to live in a world where people feel they need to only use the most common words, or the most accessible, in all situations. I want room to be left for use of “thereby” and “inculcate” and “behoove” and all the other words that Donald Trump doesn’t know.
@ Francesca:
I think it’s perfectly rational and understandable and healthy to push back against bigoted assertions that you’re inferior by trying to prove otherwise.
@axe
Same from otherside as well, I get lots of times in arguement with these alt rights on twitter where they will critisise bad grammar or spelling mistake, instead of responses to what i say. Because what i mean is clear even if it not 100% correct grammar or spelling. I know this is common tactic for people when they don’t have a good reply when you said something. So they will just say you are idiot. Once i was told this because I wrote ‘over estimate’ insted of ‘overestimate’! And apparently i use ‘literally’ wrong and there was whole thread against me for this one ?
So i can see very well the ‘snob’ side here. But also my situation is differnet anyway. Even on my own language speaking outloud i have trouble because i am shy and easily nervous so will say stupid things or too fast or too loud or too quiet for situation etc etc. But at least written i can say i am good. I like to write poetry which some people have said is good but i also dont share with many – it just for myself.
But to conclude i am little bit in agreement with policy that there is times when a word will be read a way like to make someone to feel bad. But then i like that people should not limit themselves. Language is very beatufil and if this is your talent then you should use it. ))))
I love words like “behooves”. I like all the old-fashioned words, and the old-fashioned meanings of current words.
And if anyone wants to start up a Mammotheer reading club, I would love it. I’m terrible at picking up new things to read; I tend to fall back on old favorites. It’s just laziness.
Not really, but you’re not exactly wrong either. While I’d like to explain that further, I’ve used up all my spoons for today and possibly for the week and maybe next week too? Not sure at this point, but I do know that I’m already exhausted by this discussion and I’m not up to more of it. Y’all have fun. I’m going to sleep or something and hopefully wake up tomorrow.