LustyArgonianMana

Never said that. Strawman. 🥱

I didn’t provide a conclusion, I asked you a question - how do you pick the official, global sign for eating? What will it look like?

come to consensus based on commonality. When the majority agree on a sign, use it So then why even debate? If majority decides, why not just use Chinese sign language for everything?

If you can’t understand the colonization aspect, then please read the books/authors I listed previously. Having a majority decide language for others/everyone is pretty classic colonization. That’s part of why native Americans were forced to learn English (many of your arguments are very similar to why colonizers believed English should be established as a global lingua franca)

You are simply moving goalposts. My point is that I disagree with your idea of making sign language universal or formally making even a rudimentary universal sign language. I think that would be impossible if you understand language itself. I gave you resources so you could educate yourself about why.

Yes, the sign for eating would look different in China vs Ethiopia vs the US. So what sign are you going to have it be to imitate eating in your formal language? Do you see how this can perpetuate colonization?

No, I don’t think it would be good to strip felons of their ability to be president. People who protest too hard can get felonies. People who steal too many diapers and infant formula for their kids ($2k worth, which is lower threshold every year due to inflation) can get felonies. The felony system is deeply corrupt. We should restore felon’s right to vote.

We need to fix the issues that elect someone deeply unpopular like Trump in the first place - like gerrymandering and uneven delegates. A vote should just be a vote. We should have approval voting (similar to ranked choice). More fascism isn’t the answer.

I can tell you only speak one language, or maybe another Latin based language in addition to English. If you’d learned something like Mandarin, you’d understand how complex, regional, and historical language is. It’s based on layers and shifts constantly. Sometimes, that’s specifically because people don’t want to be understood by everyone.

I really recommend reading academic books about this topic if you are curious. My favorite is Neurolinguistics and Linguistic Aphasiology, by David Caplan. You may also enjoy Chomsky’s works because he talks about commonalities in language or universal language.

There’s no need to formally codify those hand gestures, because we innately already understand and make them. Making eating motions (which may look different depending on regional utensils) is pretty universal right? But it looks different in different places.

Actually in the wheelchair community, there can indeed be pressure to use the least assistive wheelchair possible. Chairs aren’t 100% seen as liberating and there’s a lot of nuance into why people pick certain chairs beyond finances. My aunt repeatedly fell out of her chair because she insisted on one made for a lower back injury than she has. She kept it for status, because she looks more able without the sides.

I guess ‘differently abled,’ just comes across as ableism to me. Not using visible signs of a disability, like a chair or hearing aids, can be internalized ableism. Some of the worst verbalized ableism I’ve heard has come from disabled communities. It’s a very complicated topic, not least because disability is used to harm disabled people and take away their agency. And for many, there is a lot of grief with using assisitive devices.

That being said, I don’t think people should be forced to change or to use devices they dislike. My aunt still uses her chair, it’s not like we’re going to drag her into another one or whatever. I just wanted to point out the internalized ableism that could be contributing to this attitude and word change.

It wasn’t so long ago that the Civil rights Era stopped disabled people from being chained in attics and lobotomized and hid away. It’s entirely reasonable to fear that association.

You misunderstand language itself, not just sign language, if you think a universal language is possible or even a good thing