‘Phobia’ Suffix is Soviet-Style Psychiatrization of Dissent Or… Just a Metaphor?
Rabies was once called “hydrophobia” because the patient could not swallow water. Olive oil is “hydrophobic” because the water and oil molecules repel one another. “Homophobia,” “Xenophobia,” “Islamophobia”; are these attitudes being described as conscious repulsion due to moral conviction, halacha, pattern recognition, fear of God, etc., or as supposedly unreflective, prejudicial, and ignorant “phobias”?
The “homophobia” label, at least, was reportedly meant to silence opponents as “irrational” (ignoring Nassim Taleb’s explanation of rationality in action under repeated exposure and the importance of the yuck factor for starters).
Then we have “deniers”. Denial implies the truth of the claim under question (on the other hand, maybe it’s clearest).
Likewise, in British English, “homely” still means warm, comfortable, and unpretentious, like a cozy home. That’s the original sense. In American English, the word shifted to mean plain or unattractive. The logic being: a “homely” person is the kind who stays home and unseen (I assume the comparatively poor weather in Britain versus America caused the change). But with global communication, you don’t know where your words end up.
Linguistic corruption is evil in both cause and effect.
