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[–] -2 points 1 year ago (33 children)

“degenerates” as a pejorative is almost exclusively used in crypto-fascist and red-brown spaces.

Completely ridiculous. A word doesn't belong to alt-right losers just because it becomes popular on 4chan for a bit. I've used "degenerate" and heard it used many times. No need to fence off our language, just so you can have a shallow easy make believe reason to ascribe someone to a hate group.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    "Degenerate" implies there's a pure blood line and that mixed breeding literally made it degenerate.

    What do you think the word means? "Degeneration" is inherently a conservative concept. It means "used to be good but isn't anymore"

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    “Degeneration” is inherently a conservative concept. It means “used to be good but isn’t anymore”

    No, the idea of things declining is not a right-wing idea.

    Capitalism degenerates into fascism for example.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (17 children)

    A word doesn’t belong to alt-right losers just because it becomes popular on 4chan for a bit.

    It came from Nazis, from Hitler and Goebbels. 4chan picked it up because 4chan has a lot of racists & neo-Nazis.

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  • [–] -5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (16 children)

    All I'm saying is treating the word as a dog whistle is dumb. It not a code word for "undesirables" or wtv fucked up shit the nazis and 4chan are using it for. Normal people use it with the new agreed upon definition.

    Part of me also thinks it's caving into 4chan and the like. It's encouraging their definition even though it hasn't been valid for a few decades already. They don't get to define the word and I won't stop using it because of them essentially.

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  • [+] 7 points 1 year ago (7 children)
  • [–] -5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Except it's literally not the fucking dictionary definition.

    Per oxford:

    noun noun: degenerate; plural noun: degenerates /dəˈjen(ə)rət/

    an immoral or corrupt person.
    "get out of my house, you degenerate!"
    
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  • [+] 7 points 1 year ago (5 children)
  • [–] -4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

    So the definition in the link you gave does not mention the word undesirable or reference groups of people who the nazis considered undesirable.

    Edit: well the Merriam definition is a bit closer to the term, as in its more dehumanizing and harsher. I don't really think it's enough to be equivalent. I also think who you target with the word is really what makes you a nazi, and not just using it.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Dictionary definitions are almost completely useless for historical/social analysis. It's much more accurate to examine etymology and historical usage. The history of this term is very very very clearly fascist especially in USA. The people who commonly use this term are fash-adjacent at best even if they don't realize it.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    No, it’s about ethics in gaming journalism!

    GTFO, sealion. If you’re still defending this hours later, you’re trolling.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    People are still responding to me. So yes, I will reply. I dont understand the reference to gaming journalism?

    Can't I also say the same thing about you. Why are you responding hours later, are you trolling right now?

    And although you might have a point with not wanting to have dehumanizing language in the community, it doesn't mean he isn't wrong with his dictionary definition.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

    Normal people use it using the new agreed upon definition.

    That’s the old, pre-fascist, pre-eugenicist definition, not a new one, and no, we don’t use it, because we haven’t been living under a rock for the last ninety years. We know what a dog whistle is.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (3 children)

    Languages evolve I guess. I know blink 182 had a song named "degenerate". If I enter the word in chosic, I get 7000 hits (songs with the word in the lyrics). I find the expression "degenerate gambler" is kind of common? Idk.

    Just trying to show that the word is common and lost it's ties to nazis and fascists a long time ago. Just a regular but harsh insult imo, but wtv.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    https://www.dangerousspeech.org/libraries/dangerous-metaphors-how-dehumanizing-rhetoric-works

    One speaker said: “And, at some point, we will have enough power that we will clear them from the streets forever, that which is degenerate in white countries will be removed.” This racist statement implied that the people in question represent a hygienic threat to the society that should be eliminated. The existence of these humans was reduced by the speaker to “degeneration”. This biological term refers to unstoppable deterioration that can be prevented only by the eradication of the subject.

    The reason we’re so hard-ass about dehumanizing terms and other dog whistles on Lemmy is because we know how online fora become Nazi bars like 4chan. We remember and learned from GamerGate. The whole BreadTube phenomenon was formed around countering “alt-right” influencers in online spaces.

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  • [+] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (6 children)

    Sorry but you are just out of touch. Its a normal word used by the population at large. Thinking using the word "degenerate" means being a crypto fascist is top tier silly.

    Try as hard as you might to lump me in with them because of the use of a common word (lol), I will never be any kind of fascist.

    I actually think the short form "degen" is popular amongst the younger generations.

    In any caze, it's asinine behavior. It's weak. You're basically just looking for the easiest way to write someone off, like above. Instead of actually thinking about what I was saying, you just gave a trite remark. You protect yourself by turning everyone you disagree with into another fascist that can't possibly have a point.

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  • [+] 7 points 1 year ago* (5 children)
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (4 children)

    Actual definition of degenerate when referring to a person:

    "an immoral or corrupt person."

    The post here is about the goat (and associated clowns) that specialize in turning everyone they disagree with into a 'tankie' that can't possibly have a point.

    Yes, the behavior is dumb in both cases. I'd argue what you are doing is worse since your decision hinges on non sensical surface analysis of the persons vocabulary.

    I've also been called a tankie and I hate the liberal use of the word. It kind of shows just how off base your assumptions are.

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  • [+] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    “degenerates” as a pejorative is almost exclusively used in crypto-fascist and red-brown spaces.

    The word can be dehumanizing but it doesn't make the person a fascist like said above. My point is that the word simply isn't only used in those spaces and broad judgements based on it serve no one.

    I didn't mean to be insulting, I just called it surface level because it breaks apart on a simple statement like this:

    "Elon Musk is degenerate scum"

    The rest of the answer depends on usage statistics for the word, which we don't really have. Anecdotally, I use the word and I'm not a fascist as far as I can tell.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    well even the new definition/common usage includes implications of degeneration, whose meaning we would all know even without learning about Hitler

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