Y'all know exactly what I'm talkin' about, and I'm sure you've grappled with it before. Egoism offers the world the very useful concept that English-speakers translate to "spooks". However, that word has been used for a long time in america as a racist slur against Black people. It's not a good word.
I would love to be able to talk about your ideas without saying a slur, so please consider changing it. Alternative translations of Stirner's idea could include: spectre, ghost, illusion. All of these have historical grounding as names for the concept. And, really, should a True Egoist really be so attached to the name of an idea?
Again, I love the idea, but hate the current English word. Here's a based passage in which Stirner describes the concept in The Ego and Its Own:
In the time of spirits thoughts grew till they overtopped my head, whose offspring they yet were; they hovered about me and convulsed me like fever-phantasies – an awful power. The thoughts had become corporeal on their own account, were ghosts, e.g. God, Emperor, Pope, Fatherland, etc. If I destroy their corporeity, then I take them back into mine, and say: "I alone am corporeal." And now I take the world as what it is to me, as mine, as my property; I refer all to myself.
:ghost: specters :specter: ghosts :ghost: illusions :specter:
None of the words in either of these sentences have been used as a slur. Save maybe 'anglo'.
Yup, hence the 'maybe', and further proving my point haha.
Saying 'every word has been a slur' is intellectual laziness, because you don't want to confront the actual slur in front of you.
Yup, gotta keep the whole picture in mind, always. There will always be debate around which words are marginalizing as we try to move beyond racism/sexism/classism/ableism, etc. And there will be chuds trying to chip away at us the whole time haha. It's also important, though, to be fluid and adaptable, so that we can change and grow as we learn more context .
No ya, that's valid. I googled around, and it was still commonly in use as a slur in the 1940's, which means there are still living people who used it/were affected by it.
But I also brought it up in a chat I'm in, and an EM/POC basically 'yikes'd, and went "uhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah thats hella racist" hahaha.
So, like, as someone outside the context that would have, like, an intuitive understanding of 'ya, no', I've decided I'm gonna try to stop using the word.
Words change and evolve and have different contexts and all that. But when there's literally 4 different words in the original egoist literature for the concept, I'm gonna start moving towards the 3/4 that aren't also a racial slur, you know? Hahaha
That's a great solution. Just use the original word, untranslated; means people will know precisely what you're talking about. Thanks for the alternative 👍
