A Boring Dystopia

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Israel brands Palestinian detainees with numbers on their foreheads (www.middleeasteye.net)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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When Israel re-arrested Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank town of Dura, the detainees faced familiar treatment.

They were blindfolded, handcuffed, insulted and kept in inhumane conditions. More unusual was that each man had a number written on his forehead.

Osama Shaheen, who was released in August after 10 months of administrative detention, told Middle East Eye that soldiers brutally stormed his house, smashing his furniture.

"The soldiers turned us from names into numbers, and every detainee had a number that they used to provoke him during his arrest and call him by number instead of name. To them, we are just numbers."

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I've addressed your "but other people have asserted the same bullshit I have, so the bullshit must be true!" quite a few times now.

See you're walking back this statement you made. Now you're trying to say "no, I didn't say that everyone is literally using that definition, I only said that some others have pointed out the ambiguity"?

"To imply a good majority"

Oh... so... people use figures of speech when they use language, instead of meaning the literal meaning of the words they're using? Oh geez. I wonder if there's like any discipline which studies how language is used.

I've not at any point claimed that there aren't people who may have perceived it as a literal burning iron. I'm noting that there isn't a single one in this thread in which you claim that EVERYONE is using "the LITERAL and FIRST dictionary definition". Literally everyone should be interpreting it as literal branding. There's not a single comment saying so. Definitely not everyone or even a "good majority". Only yours saying that every other comment is doing that, despite everyone being able to read the other comments, like mine, which are pointing out that that's not how language or journalistic headlines work.

It's not biased, but you're rather adamant it is, yet can't even stand behind your words, but also can't admit that were wrong or that you can't stand behind them.

Just like I said, you're now trying to defend a statement where you assert that the headline is purely prescriptive, as a statement that was purely descriptive. You could avoid all this by reading wikipedia for a few minutes, but instead you keep coming back here to humiliate yourself more and more. It's hilarious.

[+] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I am not making any prescriptive claims about how the phrase burning ought to be used when describing the practice on humans

Oh, so you did go and spend a few minutes on Wiki, good, that's a start. See you are making prescriptive claims as to how you think people have interpreted it, even when faced with people saying "no, that's definitely not how I interpreted it", and afterwards you even argue to them that they can't have interpreted "branding" as a printed mark, since that's not in it's definition. Then someone shows you it is in the definition, and you still maintain your prescriptive claim.

You literally write it out right there.

“Everyone in the comments are assuming the literal and first dictionary definition of branding by physical mutilation.”

Now you've walked back that very prescriptive statement about how you pretend people have definitely interpreted this headline from explicitly stating that EVERYONE is doing something to "imply a good majority". But there is no "good majority". People upvoting a comment claiming something doesn't make that claim any more true, you understand that.

You linking "colloquialism" is peak irony as well. See if you actually understood the subject, you'd realise how silly the things you claim are. But you don't, so you don't realise it, so you keep doing it. :D What does colloquial language have to do with this? Please? Do make an argument, instead of your pseudointelligent babbling about "colloquial ambiguity". This is about you having EXPLICITLY stated that EVERYONE in this thread is using the "literal and first dictionary definition". Even being charitable to you... where is that "good majority assuming the literal and first dictionary definition"? And.. which dictionary? Wouldn't be the only one you checked when someone linked it to you, would it? Because dictionaries don't actually always put definitions in the same order, you see. :F

You're still pretending that everyone is applying the insane prescriptive standard you hold to this word, when native speakers most certainly don't. I've also linked you a million resources showing the actual usage of the term. From movies, shows, books and news articles. Most usages are either discussing a trademark or the act of being "branded" figuratively. As in all these examples that they use here https://www.playphrase.me/#/search?q=branded&language=en and once more, those examples are not cherry-picked, unlike you claimed so many times. They're literally randomly picked examples. That's the very opposite of cherry-picking, ie selecting. I won't argue that no-one uses "branding" to refer to hot irons (or cold ones, as it happens, as cryo-branding is a thing as well nowadays, better scars), but I am arguing that your bullshit statement about "Everyone in the comments are assuming the literal and first dictionary definition of branding by physical mutilation" being bullshit, because there's even a clear fucking illustration of someone having marker on their face. So please show these "everyones" using this definition which means permanent physical mutilation. Go ahead. I'll wait right here. You know, unless you want to just admit that you making a statement you knew to be bullshit?

You simply made a statement you can't back up so you're having to change it and move the goalposts of this debate. "Do better."