Nothing to do with anything.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Being a human being.

I have to say, I'm a little aghast at being told that "isms" are now "just a suffix" and that I'm "chewing on the menu" because I have referred to THEIR ism that way, much like Isaac Hayes was all about making fun of religions on Southpark until it came around to HIS religion.

Speaking only for myself, the menu-chewing isn't the rejection of one "ism", it's the broad rejection of all "isms" as "isms". It's not even like all "isms" have the same sense of "ism" (for example, Judaism is not the same kind of "ism" as Communism.)

It's a bit like disliking any word with the letter "c" because you don't like how it sounds in the c-word (it sounds very different in the word "face".)

I dunno, I think Roger, Stella, and Faust have explained pretty well where they are coming from in a way that makes it obvious it is more than just the suffix.  It's the nature of the -isms that are limiting, and potentially alienating.  So you need the uniform to be on the team, and you need to FIT the uniform.

And we'll take hammers to you until you do, or until your broken remains leak out on the floor.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Is there a suffix that can be used to express a spectrum of ideas that has a looser feel than ism? One that doesnt have the impliction of uniformity? Does ity fit the bill?

[tyrannosaurus vex]

I prefer "asm." Feminasm, Communasm...

[Nephew Twiddleton]

i can get behind that

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Anti-ismism

noun

the rejection of a practice, system, or philosophy based on a fear of turning into one of Rick Perry's leashed pets.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

I prefer "asm." Feminasm, Communasm...

[Luna]

Anti-ismism

noun

the rejection of a practice, system, or philosophy based on a fear of turning into one of Rick Perry's leashed pets.

Anti-ismism

noun

The rejection of following a practice, system, or philosophy based on the fact that pretty much every system out there was formed by a system of people, at least one of which had his or her head so far up their own ass they could see daylight.

See Also:  TFYS

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Anti-ismism

noun

the rejection of a practice, system, or philosophy based on a fear of turning into one of Rick Perry's leashed pets.

Anti-ismism

noun

The rejection of following a practice, system, or philosophy based on the fact that pretty much every system out there was formed by a system of people, at least one of which had his or her head so far up their own ass they could see daylight.

See Also:  TFYS

Discordia stopped being about TFYS, the moment we found The Perfect Thought™, the right cause, the ideal we've always been looking for.  Now we are told how to think for ourselves, and how to wear the snappy new uniform.

That's why it's now Discordianism™. 

I think I preferred Discordia.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Anti-ismism

noun

the rejection of a practice, system, or philosophy based on a fear of turning into one of Rick Perry's leashed pets.

Anti-ismism

noun

The rejection of following a practice, system, or philosophy based on the fact that pretty much every system out there was formed by a system of people, at least one of which had his or her head so far up their own ass they could see daylight.

See Also:  TFYS

Discordia stopped being about TFYS, the moment we found The Perfect Thought™, the right cause, the ideal we've always been looking for.  Now we are told how to think for ourselves, and how to wear the snappy new uniform.

That's why it's now Discordianism™. 

I think I preferred Discordia.

This is a good illustration. What is the difference between "Discordia" and "Discordianism?" I think of "Discordia" as a place occupied by all kinds of different people who share a passion for individuality. "Discordianism" is the overblown discussion of what it means to share something spontaneous with someone else. I have not much use for that.

Maybe Feminism is like that. It could be a shared ideal, even if it's a nebulous ideal, of gender equality and everything you do to contribute to that ideal and achieve it. If that's what it is, that's awesome and I support it because regardless of what we might disagree on, only what we do in concert counts as Feminism. Everything else is noise and not considered part of the equation. But if Feminism is a set of beliefs we must subscribe to in order to achieve "gender equality" through some mechanical function of an explicitly defined collective, I don't really want in.

[Freeky]

I love the idea of The Ism as a metaphor, because it is often true of the people who are into a cause, but this discussion is kind of morphing into "if the word has the suffix -ism, it's bad feedback and nothing good can come of it."

Shit, some words in this thread got made up to have an -ism suffix just to prove a point.  I feel like I should be hitting some of you in the head with a barstool.

[Freeky]

In other words, don't blame the words for having a suffix which lends extra meaning to the definition, blame the people who got a case of The Isms.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Discordia, for me, is the natural state of the universe. Particulate matter, of varying degrees of size and complexity, all bouncing around and crashing into each other in exponentially complex ways.

Discordianism? I always figured the whole notion of that was satirical, otherwise LOL.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I love the idea of The Ism as a metaphor, because it is often true of the people who are into a cause, but this discussion is kind of morphing into "if the word has the suffix -ism, it's bad feedback and nothing good can come of it."

Shit, some words in this thread got made up to have an -ism suffix just to prove a point.  I feel like I should be hitting some of you in the head with a barstool.

The evidence so far has indicated that the suffix changes the belief.  Or, perhaps, a better way of saying it is that when you've stopped thinking about what something is, and you KNOW what it is, it gains the suffix, and you can use it to bludgeon your friends to death.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

The Ism comes from defining what you and some of your buddies are, as opposed to what someone else is. Its entire purpose is definition and therefore exclusion. So, most of the Ismist's time and energy is spent on deciding whether or not something or someone qualifies for inclusion in the Ism. Strife occurs when two people have different ideas about what should be included or excluded from the Ism. When this happens, the entire identity of the Ism is called into question, rehashed, redefined and examined - which would be good, except that everyone's definitions are grounded in the definition they already have, because without that the Ism disappears for them.

And yes "the Ism" is a reference to this phenomenon, not to the actual suffix of words.

[Juana]

Maybe Feminism is like that. It could be a shared ideal, even if it's a nebulous ideal, of gender equality and everything you do to contribute to that ideal and achieve it. If that's what it is, that's awesome and I support it because regardless of what we might disagree on, only what we do in concert counts as Feminism. Everything else is noise and not considered part of the equation. But if Feminism is a set of beliefs we must subscribe to in order to achieve "gender equality" through some mechanical function of an explicitly defined collective, I don't really want in.

This seems a little contradictory. Could you expand on this?