Moderation Questions

Lucky, the problem with your whole "I don't get how words work" shtick is that you clearly aren't as dumb as you act; you know perfectly well that words like "abnormal" can have a pejorative connotation. Mong and Craig are a lot better at this, it's never clear if he's confusing "woman/women" deliberately or if he's just confused.

It’s mostly just amusing that we’re even having this debate about what normal means when half of you need immediate first class tickets to the grippy socks resort. But sure, what’s normal?

It's not just a connotation. It's literally part of the denotation:

From Oxford
"deviating from what is normal or usual, typically in a way that is undesirable or worrying."

From MW
"deviating from the normal or average. a person with abnormal [=exceptional] strength. abnormal powers of concentration. often : unusual in an unwelcome or problematic way"

Who here has used abnormal?

No, bro, it's abundantly clear. Dude is a grade A moron.

I wouldn't expect someone with exceptional strength to be abnormal

"Abnormal" is to "normal" what "anti-intellectualism" is to "intellectualism". Sometimes the prefix does more than simply negate the word. "Abnormal" to "normal" is more like "dull" to "interesting" than "uninteresting" to "interesting".

For the same reason, saying "abnormal" is different to saying "not normal", the latter not conveying a value judgement in my view.

“Abnormal” can be disparaging, but it need not be for the person who places their belonging in the future. I’m not ashamed even a little bit to not belong to the current social reality.

The idea that we should make current society accepting and accommodating to every identity / aspect of every adult is unworkable. As we are seeing with the clash between trans and feminists. Are we not?

Who here is actually willing to be truthful and honest about this?

When did I ever deny that it can have a pejorative meaning?

Why do you think the fact that it can have a pejorative meaning is important to this discussion?

Do you think left handed people are abnormal btw?

I don't need to look it up, nor did I make any claims that depend upon its definition.

But thanks for the completely unwarranted attempted condescension.

I don't like playing make believe.

Is someone recognizing that there is something wrong with them a bad thing? It seems this knowledge gives them the opportunity to either accept it and live with it or change what is wrong.

It might be that he doesn't check his post for grammatical accuracy before clicking submit.

You're not flying the plane are you? Don't need the waterworks blurring your vision when looking for the runway.

If you knew would "typically" meant I doubt you would have touted what follows in your OED example as being "literally part of the definition", since by definition when something is typically something that means it doesn't have to be.

Um, it is quite literally part of the denotation.

"Can have" is performing the function of your "typically" here.

You seem very confused here. I never used the words "it has to be" or "always." I simply said it's part of the denotation. The point is it's the opposite of connotation, which is a meaning that is not present in the denotation, but still invoked. That isn't true here since the meaning being referred to, which included the phrase "can be" (not "always is" or similar), is present in the denotation.

For someone accusing me of not knowing what words mean, you sure have struggled with language in literally every post you've responded to me with. And, oddly, you haven't shown one thing that I've gotten wrong. Remember when I told you I was happy to allow you to go right on making a fool of yourself? Good times.

Gorgo,

Is a left handed person abnormal yes or no?

This is like saying you got 2+2 wrong because you didn't check your answer on a calculator. Only a total moron constantly makes that mistake in the first place.

Remember when I gave you the chance to have a conversation with me on this topic and you declined quite rudely? gfys

It's very funny that you think you can just jump in and demand answers from me like you didn't treat me like dogsh a few hours ago.

You wanted to know how you were wrong and I was trying to show you. I guess you really aren't interested in learning though.

I can try to break it down though.
Normal: typical, average, standard, etc
Abnormal: not those things.

Just because the word 'abnormal' might have a negative connotation does not make that a "literal part of the definition" as you alleged. Yes, left handed people are abnormal, just like people who like crossword puzzles and whatever other silly examples you listed.

ah, a list of normal things for people to be and like!

In my experience, abnormal pretty much always has a negative connotation. Even as an opposite of normal, there are plenty of alternate words which can easily be chosen to not make the description come across as negative.

A typical, unusual, even just minority can be used in some contexts to mean the same thing while not sounding so negative.

This is an idiotic argument, and you know it is. Words mean things.

If you think it's normal to be left handed then there is no having a discussion with you as you clearly live in some alternate reality.