# You know what I hate? How the word empowerment lost its original use and context **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 28, 2018, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678 "2018-01-28T21:44:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/181 "2018-01-30T01:59:36Z")
> [@Luciano700](#): > > Is racial bullying still big on schools? All I see is almost mixed race people now. Perhaps racial bullying is a smaller problem with your generation. I sure hope it is. That would be welcome progress. But that’s not the only kind of discrimination that exists in schools and society as a whole. I think you know that. ---
**Author:** ![Luciano700](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Luciano700](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luciano700)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/182 "2018-01-30T02:09:46Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Perhaps racial bullying is a smaller problem with your generation. I sure hope it is. That would be welcome progress. But that’s not the only kind of discrimination that exists in schools and society as a whole. I think you know that. And I never denied that 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Luciano700](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Luciano700](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luciano700)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/183 "2018-01-30T02:21:44Z")
Heck where are my autism rights activists? People still wanting to threaten me for being autistic. But seriously, we need to stop hating eachother as people. Hate=stress And I don’t condone genocide of whatever reason, same applies to some extinctions of animals. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/184 "2018-01-30T02:25:22Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Think for yourself and let your opinion as to what is right be your guide. It sure was polite of you to come in here and make wide-ranging attacks on liberals being bad people for supposedly staging targeted attacks on individuals. And especially awesome of you to tell him what’s right and then tell him to make up his own mind. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/185 "2018-01-30T02:26:48Z")
Well, for starters the second article you gave, and claimed it stated that it said there were no longer any rapes on college campuses. Except…that wasn’t what it said at all. You need to start reading more closely. Politics aren’t necessarily a sum-zero game. You can pay attention to say, poverty issues rather than minority issues, if that’s your interest. No one’s forcing you to focus on identity politics. (I for one just find a lot of it boring, so I mostly just don’t read them much, if only because it’s so jargon-heavy.) > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Name one! Name one single outspoken conservative poster on this board who doesn’t routinely come in for name-calling and insults. Not even **Sam Stone** nor **Bricker** has escaped the left-wing animosity, insults and intolerance that characterizes not only this place but liberalism in general. > > Mostly by people who don’t like their liberalism criticized in the same way (albeit more polite by several orders of magnitude) that they criticize conservatives and conservatism. And of course by those still stung at having one of their pet outrages and assumptions shot down and shown to be utterly and entirely wrong six years ago. > > These people are being marginally polite to you right now because they still hold out hope that you’ll come around and become a good, upstanding liberal. You’ve experienced a little of the way they behave otherwise by virtue of the post upthread accusing you of getting your views from right-wing rabble-rousers on Youtube. They simply cannot believe that anyone of their own accord could possibly have any other than a liberal view of the world. I, myself, get accusations of listening to Fox News channel, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, etc., despite the fact I’ve said many times that I don’t watch or listen to any of them and have been conservative in my politics all the way back to my teen years. Conservatism is where common sense lies, and liberalism is where attempts are endlessly made to pound square pegs into the round holes of life (with pretty much the expected result), and with a good helping of hatred toward anyone who observes that their efforts aren’t likely to work. > > Finally, I’d suggest you disregard entirely this nonsense that I have become or want to become your mentor around here. The motive behind it is to try to drive a wedge between you and your truly, the board’s most outspoken critic of liberals and liberalism in general, and even worse, one who can’t be criticized, insulted, mocked or otherwise hectored into submitting or disappearing. I have no interest in ‘mentoring’ you or anyone else, and certainly would never presume that I should. But think carefully about the advice you’re getting in this thread re who you should listen to and how you should post, as every bit of it is self-serving and intended to draw you into the liberal ethos. > > In short, think for yourself and come to your opinions and beliefs honestly and in the ways that most resonate with you. Whether your beliefs settle on those that are conservative or liberal, it doesn’t matter, as long as you don’t allow yourself to harangued or intimidated into them. Think for yourself and let your opinion as to what is right be your guide. See this guy? Ignore him. Basically he thinks everything bad in this country and/or the world is because of liberals. The same with the board. We just point and laugh at him. Don’t be like him. And yes, **Starving Artist** , I’m only saying that because I’m a liberal, and I hate conservatives. I finally admit that now. It’s all part of the SDMB liberal agenda to bring down all conservative posters. Happy now? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Luciano700](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Luciano700](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luciano700)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/186 "2018-01-30T02:29:22Z")
Where would a libertarian find their place happily then? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/187 "2018-01-30T02:32:17Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > College isn’t that bad, or rape isn’t that bad? Need clarification. > ETA: Is it rape month already? It’s only January. To be fair, considering that rape month is February it’s only a couple of days too early. ---
**Author:** ![Luciano700](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Luciano700](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luciano700)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/188 "2018-01-30T02:42:25Z")
> [@Luciano700](#): > > Where would a libertarian find their place happily then? Or a classical liberal for that matter? Green Tea party? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/189 "2018-01-30T02:42:38Z")
> [@Luciano700](#): > > Heck where are my autism rights activists? People still wanting to threaten me for being autistic, You are so full of shit, both Pampers and Tid-E-Bowl want to use you in their commercials. Might I suggest a different tack? If you start putting yourself out as “Morally/Ethically Handicapped”, I doubt anyone here would call you on it. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/190 "2018-01-30T02:43:23Z")
> [@Luciano700](#): > > Where would a libertarian find their place happily then? There’s no such thing as a libertarian in a fox hole. Go to sleep kid. And stay off of YouTube. It’ll give you bad dreams and delusions of knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![Luciano700](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Luciano700](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luciano700)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/191 "2018-01-30T02:45:36Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > You are so full of shit, both Pampers and Tid-E-Bowl want to use you in their commercials. > Might I suggest a different tack? If you start putting yourself out as “Morally/Ethically Handicapped”, I doubt anyone here would call you on it. Why the heat? ---
**Author:** ![Luciano700](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Luciano700](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luciano700)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/192 "2018-01-30T02:46:57Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > There’s no such thing as a libertarian in a fox hole. > > Go to sleep kid. And stay off of YouTube. It’ll give you bad dreams and delusions of knowledge. I don’t sleep until 10 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/193 "2018-01-30T02:47:39Z")
> [@Luciano700](#): > > Why the heat? Why the bullshit? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/194 "2018-01-30T02:48:41Z")
> [@Luciano700](#): > > Where would a libertarian find their place happily then? Try Somalia. ---
**Author:** ![Luciano700](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Luciano700](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luciano700)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/195 "2018-01-30T02:48:52Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Why the bullshit? You realize I wasn’t being serious with that part of the comment, but of course you’re too lazy to read the rest of the post ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/196 "2018-01-30T02:53:28Z")
> [@Luciano700](#): > > Where would a libertarian find their place happily then? As above, just put Starving Artist on ignore, or skip past his posts. You’re not going to find any reason in that one. For god’s sake, don’t try to engage him. As for your question; Learn how to argue your positions logically and with documentation and examples. As I said, Libertarianism has some severe reality issues with its economic and social theories. Look closely at them, look at the evidence in favor and against it and learn to listen to people explaining the rather large absurdities in the philosophy. If you can get to a point where you can logically explain how a libertarian nation would actually function, then congratulations, you will have done something no previous libertarian was able to do. And remember this: If your philosophy requires Humans to not be Humans, it is doomed to failure. Communism is one such philosophy in that it requires all humans to not act like humans are going to act. So if at any point, the logic of the position says “well, everyone will have to change their behavior about” or “well people will just do X”, stop there and mark off that position as untenable and unrealistic. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/197 "2018-01-30T02:57:24Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > See this guy? Ignore him. Basically he thinks everything bad in this country and/or the world is because of liberals. The same with the board. We just point and laugh at him. To the degree she’s right, it’s because insults, attacks, intimidation and calls for my banning haven’t worked, so laughter and mockery is the only defense they have left. Those don’t work either but at least they’re comforting, the others result only in frustration. FWIW, my admittedly abrasive posting style is a direct result of the treatment I received when I first came onto the board. No one who knows me in real life would ever recognize me from the way I post here. But, when surrounded by wolves, allowing oneself to be intimidated is not the answer. For many months I tried being polite and engaging people in honest conversation. Insults, mockery, obfuscation and dishonesty were I got for my trouble. So I decided to fight fire with fire and now I just state what I have to say forthrightly and let the chips fall where they may. If you’d like to know the thoughts of some of the board’s intelligent and less…reflexive, posters, I’d suggest you look into the posting history of the aforementioned **Sam Stone** and **Bricker**. **Bricker** is an attorney and **Sam Stone** , I believe, is an upper level software guy. Another smart guy, although you’ll never hear it from anyone around here, is **Shodan** , though he seems to limit himself lately mostly to one or two sentence prickings of various liberal comments. Another guy you’ll hear a lot of criticism of is **Clothahump** , who like me has had enough of the b.s. that goes on around here and doesn’t mince his words either. The board likes to defend and comfort itself through endless claims of his so-called stupidity, but he successfully runs his own business and has for years, offers helpful comments when people want info on running a business or dealing with taxes, etc. He is a little quick off the mark sometimes and posts things that turn out not to be correct, but those are more attributable to haste and contempt than to mental deficiency. ---
**Author:** ![Luciano700](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Luciano700](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luciano700)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/198 "2018-01-30T03:02:42Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Try Somalia. Did you mean Samoa? ---
**Author:** ![Luciano700](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Luciano700](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luciano700)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/199 "2018-01-30T03:13:12Z")
Well I appreciate some of the positive insight I support small government so there’s that. Nothing wrong with big government, but I would argue small government can make people gain some responsibility and there’s arguably more freedom too. Also, privatization. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678/200 "2018-01-30T03:21:27Z")
> [@Luciano700](#): > > Also, privatization. Privatization is not some magic solution. Adding a profit margin isn’t a net positive. Some things are just better done by a government that can utilize economy of scale, limit the salaries and benefits of the top people and doesn’t need to make a profit. Corporations will argue that only a person making $30 million a year can do a good job being a leader and they’re worth every penny. Government agency heads usually do a good job making 1% of that. And they’re responsible to the rest of the government and the electorate, where a company is only responsible to it’s stockholders, who only care about the money. Consider this: What would be the actual benefit of privatizing national parks? What would the potential long term downsides be? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-i-hate-how-the-word-empowerment-lost-its-original-use-and-context/807678.md?page=11)