Physics Guy wrote:I'm pretty sure Peterson was carping about the pseudo-Greek etymology of a word that would literally mean "fear of sameness" or something. I'm afraid I have to confess that for a few years I often bridled inside, in a similar way, at discussions of privilege, because I thought that "privilege" ought to mean having a "private law" and that didn't really fit the situation. Thankfully I never actually wrote or posted that brilliant analysis anywhere that I can recall.
It was a stupid approach to semantics. Words mean what most people intend them to mean, not what some learned wiseass thinks they should mean. English is full of firmly accepted words with bizarre etymologies.
More importantly, of course, in a discussion of something that harms a lot of people it's vicious to deflect the discussion with pedantic quibbles over terminology. It would still be vicious even if the pedantic quibbles were right.
At the far end of this spectrum are the morally brain-dead idiots chiding people for using the term "Holocaust" for an event in which not literally the whole Jewish people was burnt. I feel that I once took a few wretched steps along the start of that road, in my thinking. I've run back and don't want to go there again. It's sad to see Peterson a little farther along. He should hurry back, too.
If this is what Dr. Peterson has in mind, then what he will be doing is nonsense and a silly diversion. BYU and the church made some poor decisions on this one and arguing over the meaning of words will compound the errors.
