The Counterspin Theory of Language

My vote for the most unintentionally funny thing to appear on the political wing of the internets* is FactChuck admonishing the opponents of Janice Rogers Brown for using her words to imply that, she did, in fact, believe that Social Security was the same as eating human flesh. Brendan Nyhan, former proprietor of the similar and equally useless Spinsanity, is also a big believer in the theory that because he does not believe that words can ever convey anything other than their literal, decontextualized meaning, everyone else must share the belief too. Nyhan applies this new theory of language to Eric Alterman, with hilarious results. And then, in defending Nyhan, Justin Gardner says that I’m make a similar mistake as Alterman, although “he is the Alterman” in this debate. (I admit that I’m a little confused.)

So lest there be any confusion, when I titled this post “John Birch Lives,” I did not in fact mean that John Birch–or even Robert Welch–has risen from his grave and is attacking the International Islamist Conspiracy in zombiefied form. When I used the phrase “the shape that hates America” I was not attributing a belief to opponents of the memorial that the semicircular shape literally feels the emotion of hatred toward the United States. (Well, maybe Charles Johnson.) With respect to the shape/symbol distinction, Justin is simply begging the question. The point of my argument was that I completely reject the claim that a semicircle of maple trees constitutes a symbol of Islam simply because the shapes share some similarities, and proponents of this belief have not provided any evidence whatsoever that this symbolism was intended in any way. I am perfectly clear about the distinction between shapes and symbols, which is why I would not make such a silly conflation; it is people who believe that the Flight 93 memorial is a tribute to Islam who apparently are having trouble with this distinction.

*This phrase is a references to a statement made by President Bush. The author does not in fact believe that there are multiple internets.