Right off the bat, I'm getting really sick of this word as well as 'freedom'. To make this clear because I know someone will still bring it up and I'll have to redirect them here, I'm not hating on the meaning of the words, I'm hating on the words themselves and how ridiculously overused and misunderstood they are. Now, this thread applies mostly to US citizens since I think our foreign brethren may have a harder time grasping how truly annoying it is to hear these words tossed around so frequently with such little meaning, but I think this sort of frustration can be applied to any term with a heavy meaning that gets overused. Such as "love".
In the US, whenever some people feel threatened by the government, new laws, legislation or toppings they didn't want on their pizza, the words "liberty" and "freedom" are bound to show up. Even if they have no bearing on the situation, those words are fire-starters and people know this. It's why they're used. What better why to rile people up than to start ranting about the death of freedom or the loss of liberty? People are easy to stir and easy to convince and using such words just helps grease the wheels so to say.
It also has a truly negative effect because the continued usage of the term diminishes its meaning and for two words that should be very important to us, they've become incredibly dull and sterile.
What are your thoughts? Do you think they're overused? Can you see the possibility of a negative effect of overusing them?
In the US, whenever some people feel threatened by the government, new laws, legislation or toppings they didn't want on their pizza, the words "liberty" and "freedom" are bound to show up. Even if they have no bearing on the situation, those words are fire-starters and people know this. It's why they're used. What better why to rile people up than to start ranting about the death of freedom or the loss of liberty? People are easy to stir and easy to convince and using such words just helps grease the wheels so to say.
It also has a truly negative effect because the continued usage of the term diminishes its meaning and for two words that should be very important to us, they've become incredibly dull and sterile.
What are your thoughts? Do you think they're overused? Can you see the possibility of a negative effect of overusing them?