At 17:24 03-10-2002 -0400, Jon Gabriel wrote:
>Jeroen,
>
>I have presented eight valid sources (most accepted **internationally** in
>their fields) that explain that proper usage of a particular word in
>English is not what you, in your opinion, consider the 'logical'
>definition of it to be.
>
>You want me to accept that your postulated argument is more valid than the
>one I've proven? Show me the authorities and source materials that agree
>with you.
The authority on this is called "plain and simple logic". If X equals Y,
then -X equals -Y. If X equals Y, then -X does not equal -0.5Y.
A lot of people choose (intentionally or unintentionally) to misinterpret
the actual meaning of the word "anti-Semite" (they believe that X equals Y,
but -X does not equal -Y). But the fact that there are a lot of them does
not make their misinterpretation the new and correct meaning.
>Otherwise you're wrong, and I've proved my point.
You have not proven me wrong. All you have essentially done is state that
while "Semite" refers to both Jews and Arabs, the opposite of the word
("anti-Semite") does not correspond with the opposite meaning of the word
("hatred of Jews and Arabs").
Again, the fact that a lot of people choose to misinterpet the meaning of a
word does not make their interpretation valid.
But you have proven something: my other point. In my previous post I wrote:
>>If both Jews and Arabs are Semitic, than *by definition* the word
>>anti-Semitic must mean anti-Jew *and* anti-Arab -- just like
>>"anti-American" means "hatred of anything American" and not "only hatred
>>of anything Texan". What the pro-Israel crowd is doing, is ignoring part
>>of the meaning of the word because it does not suit their needs.
>>
>>But then, they really have no choice -- if they were to admit that
>>"anti-Semite" also means "anti-Arab", they would end up having to admit
>>that their logic is fatally flawed.
You show precisely the behaviour I described for the pro-Israel crowd. Your
Israel-related posts from earlier this year show that you are in fact part
of that crowd. So, you have a very good reason for your (mis)interpretation
of the word "anti-Semite" -- admitting that your interpretation of the word
is wrong would seriously undermine the most favourite tactic of said
population group.
Jeroen "Likud Delenda Est" van Baardwijk
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