The 27-year-old man who police say shot and killed a California business owner over a Pride flag draped in her store appears to have had a yearslong history of posting disturbing — and often violent — anti-LGBTQ messages on social media.

The suspect, Travis Ikeguchi, gunned down Laura Ann Carleton, 66, on Friday, after confronting her and “yelling many homophobic slurs” over her clothing store’s Pride flag, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said at a news conference Monday. Shortly after fleeing the store, Mag.Pi, Ikeguchi was killed in a shootout with law enforcement.

    • pizza-bagel
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      2710 months ago

      Phobia doesn’t only mean fear. Things that are hydrophobic aren’t scared of water

    • @DadeMurphy@lemm.ee
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      210 months ago

      Exactly. And since we already have words for that, I don’t understand why people have to make up new terminology. If the article called him a bigot, I would still know what the shooting was about.

      • @Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world
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        3610 months ago

        “Homophobia” has been the accepted and predominant term for anti-gay bigotry for as long as I can remember; no one’s making up new terminology here.

            • pizza-bagel
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              2310 months ago

              I don’t really feel anything about the dictionary definition of words tbh

                • UristMcHolland
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                  1510 months ago

                  Yet you still don’t realize how badly you are failing to communicate in your comments. Which is the whole point of words right?

                • @yata@sh.itjust.works
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                  410 months ago

                  You are the only one doing that though. All you comments are basically projection (you can look up the definition of that term).

        • @DadeMurphy@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          As I said in another comment, Native American has been the terminology for quite some time as well, regardless of the fact that it’s wrong.

          My point, so you don’t think I’m trying a straw man argument, just because something is used for a long time, by the majority of people, doesn’t make it inherently correct.

          • @Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world
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            1110 months ago

            I don’t understand why people have to make up new terminology

            I used google trends to show you they’re not; the term has been in common use for literally decades.

            Further, you’ve been stating repeatedly in this thread that “homophobia” is incorrect semantically because it’s not a literal fear of gay people. But the literal dictionary definition of “phobia” proves you wrong on this.

            Repeating the same alternative facts over and over in this thread doesn’t make them true.

        • @DadeMurphy@lemm.ee
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          110 months ago

          So has the term “Native American “, and that’s no more correct than the word “homophobia “. 🤷🏻‍♂️

          • @Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Except “phobia” doesn’t solely mean “irrational fear”. As @pizza-bagel@kbin.social pointed out, “hydrophilia” and “hydrophobia” do not refer to chemicals that are literally in love with or afraid of water.

      • @Landrin201@lemmy.ml
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        1210 months ago

        What us the definition of “hydrophobia” as it relates to chemistry?

        I’ll wait for you to explain how some molecules are leterally afraid of water.

        • @DadeMurphy@lemm.ee
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          110 months ago

          What does that have to do with homophobia?

          The same point comes across if you call them a bigot instead of attaching new definitions to a word so that it fits the description of someone who is prejudiced.

      • @yata@sh.itjust.works
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        510 months ago

        Bigotry is the overall term, homophobia is a subset of bigotry. You are the one attempting to redefine language in ways noone but yourself agrees with.