The F-Word

Now that I’ve tackled The C-Word, it’s time to move on down the road to F. Here’s the chain of events:

• Earlier this week I referred to Gary Francione’s interview on Vegan Freak Radio from late last year. It’s a love fest, they agree with one another, and all is right with the world.
• Erik Marcus of Vegan.com has commented about parts of the interview on his podcast, and I was definitely not feeling the love. (Naturally, I believe everyone should listen to both segments and judge for themselves.)

The main source of angst in Marcus’ commentary is that he believes "the burden of proof is on Professor Francione" to show that welfare "victories" won’t lead to abolition.

• Professor Francione does just that in his blog this week.

Because I have a doctorate in Applied Linguistics, I’m particularly curious about the way humans use language, especially when they are debating. We humans tend to be quite proud of our language skills, and in fact often point to them as what separates us from other animals. Meanwhile, our language is often the thing that gets in the way of our communication.

• Marcus drops the F-bomb regarding Francione; he calls him a Fundamentalist.

I get the F-bomb a lot, and I don’t consider it an insult at all–it’s simply an observation. Fundamentalism is the strict adherence to principles. A vegan, by definition, is a fundamentalist in that she is aligning her behavior with her beliefs. All it means is that consistency is present, and hypocrisy is absent. That’s it; end of story. But Marcus clearly uses it as a derogatory term. After all, who are the most famous fundamentalists on the planet right now? The religious fundamentalists of Al Qaeda who want us (Americans, among others) dead.

If you react like the word is an insult, it’s an insult. But if you clarify what it means, you put the other person on the defense, and they must scramble for a new word to describe you. Don’t let anyone else set the rules (the language) of a debate without clarifying any remotely objectionable term.