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by layer8 1307 days ago
We should also acknowledge that language more often than not works in approximations and generalizations, and usually everyone still understands what is meant. There needs to be some flexibility on both sides.
1 comments

This is an important point and it's lost in these debates.

The new cool thing is to pretend context/intent doesn't exist, that words and expressions should always be looked at in isolation. Even though it's a fundamental part of language and how the brain perception systems work to contextualize and loosely categorize everything based on the current set of information in a particular scenario.

Words/language is messy, highly flexible, and rarely strictly defined. For good reason.

Mostly so people can win internet arguments and feel superior/victimized.