Det är bara att erkänna. Jag är en bright! Eller kanske bara brajt?

Richard Dawkins skriver i Guardian om hur språket påverkar hur vi uppfattar världen (det som brukar kallas en svag tolkning av Sapir-Whorf-hypotesen).

"A triumph of consciousness-raising has been the homosexual hijacking of the word "gay" ... Gay is succinct, uplifting, positive: an "up" word, where homosexual is a down word, and queer, faggot and pooftah are insults.

Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell, of Sacramento, California, have set out to coin a new word, a new "gay". Like gay, it should be a noun hijacked from an adjective, with its original meaning changed but not too much. Like gay, it should be catchy: a potentially prolific meme. Like gay, it should be positive, warm, cheerful, bright.

Bright? Yes, bright.

Bright is the word, the new noun. I am a bright. You are a bright. She is a bright. We are the brights. Isn't it about time you came out as a bright? Is he a bright? I can't imagine falling for a woman who was not a bright."

Bright är det nya ordet för oss som inte tror på någon religion - ett ord som inte är en negation, inte laddat med fördomar eller dammigt i största allmänhet som "ateist".

"Geisert and Futrell are very insistent that their word is a noun and must not be an adjective. 'I am bright' sounds arrogant. 'I am a bright' sounds too unfamiliar to be arrogant: it is puzzling, enigmatic, tantalising. It invites the question, 'What on earth is a bright?' And then you're away: 'A bright is a person whose world view is free of supernatural and mystical elements. The ethics and actions of a bright are based on a naturalistic world view.'

'You mean a bright is an atheist?'

'Well, some brights are happy to call themselves atheists. Some brights call themselves agnostics. Some call themselves humanists, some free thinkers. But all brights have a world view that is free of supernaturalism and mysticism.'

'Oh, I get it. It's a bit like 'gay'. (...)

Of course, even though we brights will scrupulously insist that our word is a noun, if it catches on it is likely to follow gay and eventually re-emerge as a new adjective. And when that happens, who knows, we may finally get a bright president."

Vad blir det på svenska? Bright eller brajt? (Trots att språkvårdare förordar rejv och lajv framför rave och live, har jag inte hört någon föreslå att det borde heta gej.)

Läs hela ho Guardian. Richard Dawkins: The future looks bright
(Tack, Nils, för länken!)

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