reading this, months later, i feel the anger. words have power and they move. this has moved me. your words have moved me. but god, i wish words moved the people who commit atrocities and let atrocities happen. it seems we will have to move them ourselves.
yeah... there's a point where words aren't enough to affect change and protection, i know that, and often that feels unfair to me when words were enough to do the destroying in the first place. there is so much anger, and i wish outcry and words were enough, but they aren't. or at least it feels like an undeserved idealism. all to say—i know. you're right. i'm sorry for taking so long to write back to your comment, and thank you for reading this and being angry with me.
this reply is many months too late, i know, i'm sorry, but i've been sitting on the phrasing here for so long and sighing because that's exactly it, huh? seeing the weaponization of language in the dehumanization of people with lives and futures of their own, let alone mass-scale destruction of the things we're supposed to consider sacred—it's hard not to be disgusted by the same things you used to love language for. you're right. not even the word sacred means anything anymore. it really feels so emptying.
reading this, months later, i feel the anger. words have power and they move. this has moved me. your words have moved me. but god, i wish words moved the people who commit atrocities and let atrocities happen. it seems we will have to move them ourselves.
yeah... there's a point where words aren't enough to affect change and protection, i know that, and often that feels unfair to me when words were enough to do the destroying in the first place. there is so much anger, and i wish outcry and words were enough, but they aren't. or at least it feels like an undeserved idealism. all to say—i know. you're right. i'm sorry for taking so long to write back to your comment, and thank you for reading this and being angry with me.
when “killed” turns into “died” and when “women and children” turns into “human shields”, i learn to hate language the same way i learned to love it
this reply is many months too late, i know, i'm sorry, but i've been sitting on the phrasing here for so long and sighing because that's exactly it, huh? seeing the weaponization of language in the dehumanization of people with lives and futures of their own, let alone mass-scale destruction of the things we're supposed to consider sacred—it's hard not to be disgusted by the same things you used to love language for. you're right. not even the word sacred means anything anymore. it really feels so emptying.
this one is so important. thank you