Someone (preferably a philosopher such as me) needs to intervene in what has become a silly debate. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that Donald Trump said that the United States doesn't need (or want) immigrants from "shithole countries." Trump used the term "shithole." What CNN did is something quite different: it mentioned the term. I haven't watched much CNN in the past day or so, but I'm fairly sure that nobody on the network used the term "shithole," as Trump supposedly did. This blogger appears not to grasp the difference between using a term and mentioning it. There is as much difference between using "shithole" and mentioning "shithole" as there is between using a hammer (to pound nails, for example) and mentioning (i.e., referring to, talking about) a hammer.
A second mistake, which was made repeatedly by Rush Limbaugh on his radio program this afternoon, is to conflate (1) being offended by the word "shithole" (as one might be offended by the words "bitch," "retard," or "fucker") and (2) objecting to the implicit racism of the use of the word. What leftists are up in arms about is not the fact that Trump used the word (still assuming that he did) but that he appears to have used it to disparage various countries, peoples, or ethnic groups. To quote Al Franken, Rush Limbaugh is (at least sometimes) a big fat idiot. Don't get me wrong: I like Rush; I listen to him religiously; occasionally I learn from him. But sometimes, as was the case today, he fails to make obvious and important distinctions.
