People Saying Racism is Wrong and People Saying it Isn't Can both be Right - the Importance of Defining of Terms

If you feel like you're having a day that is too easy and comfortable, and you'd like to make it a little more frustrating, give online discussions a chance! The easiest way to engage in an annoying online debate these days is probably Facebook, but for the more hardcore individual, looking for whole new, exotic angles in hating your life, the comment sections of news articles and YouTube will work extremely well.

One such topic right now, especially on the eve of the US presidential election, is racism.

People have clearly been divided into two groups: those saying racism is wrong and those saying there is nothing inherently wrong with racism. Even you reading this right now probably classify yourself into one of these two groups. We have our reasons for believing our view on the matter is the right one, but we just can't seem to convince the people on the other camp about why we are correct.

However, what if I told you that it's possible that when two people are arguing about racism, they can actually both be correct, and that they are fundamentally arguing about nothing?

And do note that this same phenomena can be seen in numerous other topics, as well, basically encompassing the entire stratosphere of the world of online debates and societal discussion. I will be mainly focusing on racism, since it's topical.

The problem, that no one seems to ever bring up, is that terms have been grossly diluted by everybody adding their own, personal spin on them - ultimately making them meaningless, since the point of a term in the first place is to mean something specific, which theoretically should help discussion in general.

When two people are arguing about whether racism is acceptable or not, they can be using the term "racism", but they can have two, entirely different definitions for it. One is talking about racial violence, while the other is merely talking about a preference when it comes to dealing with people within his own social circles.

During the discussion, neither party bothers to define what it is exactly that they mean by the term racism, which basically leads to them engaging in a yelling contest for an amount of time, after which they withdraw into their bunkers, appalled at the level of stupidity showcased by the other person, and generally feeling even more convinced that the peple on the other side are a stupid, horrible and generally hopeless bunch of people.

When dealing with politically hazardous terms like racism - or any other similar term- it'd be a big step in the right direction to always ask for a definition. So, when hearing someone say racism is right or wrong, instead of attacking them and trying to convince them that they are wrong, without even knowing what it exactly is that you're arguing about, you should ask for a definition of the term. This way, you are in the same playing field, and lots of unnecessary mental agony has been avoided.

So, what do they mean by racism? Are they talking about violence against a group of people based on their ethnicity, are they talking about not wanting people of a certain ethnicity in their group of friends, are they talking about discrimination against certain ethnic groups when hiring workforce.. It's impossible to tell just by looking at the mere term "racism", since it's pretty much made to mean so many things at once that, like I said, it doesn't really mean anything anymore. It's entirely possible for someone to be a racist in not wanting to deal with, say, black people in his free time, but at the same time being dead set on opposing any kind of racist violence perpetrated against them based on the color of their skin.

There is also a clear distinction between the two: the former is a personal preference that, in a free society, can't truly be "wrong", while the latter is a gross violation of one's right to live free in said free society.

So, while arguing about racism, someone can be condemning racist violence, while the other is defending his right to a personal preference, and they think they are debating the same topic, and a conversation like this is doomed from the start to lead absolutely nowhere.

The same can actually be said about terms like capitalism, socialism, communism, feminism, anarchism, the list goes on and on and on and on.

Capitalism is one of the worst ones, since, in people's minds, it can be defined as anything varying from free trade in a peaceful, voluntaryist society, to oppressive crony, state capitalism in which the state loots money from the public to selected corporations that use it to keep small businesses down. And the phenomena I just described above manifests itself, just with a different set of terms. The irony is that the people arguing about capitalism can actually agree on more than they think, they just never bother to check.

Funnily enough, I got the idea for this blog, again, from wrestling. You see, when discussing pro wrestling, there is certain, wrestling-specific, terminology that has remained intact ever since the terms were invented in, I don't know, the 1920s. Whenever a wrestling discussion is being had, terms like kayfabe, babyface, heel, work, shoot, gimmick, mark and countless others always mean the same thing - they did in the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, and right now in 2016. It's the exact opposite of terms used in the political sphere. I can check out an interview in 1986, and when "gimmicks" are being discussed, the exact same thing is being discussed as it would be in 2016.

This is absolutely not the case with the hot topic terms like racism.

It made think about how f'd up all societal discussion has become. Now, people who use the original, correct definitions of terms are technically correct. And while I think technically correct is the best kind of correct, if one's aim is to actually put forward an idea and accomplish something in a discussion, other than a headache, it might be wise to make it clear what it is that you're talking about.

So, do you want to live in a better world? Start today, by defining your terms.

Thanks.