Lawmakers establish what the law is. Other than that I can’t follow your non-sequiturs.

Nice, definitions from the 19th century. Thanks for clearing that up.

You said I didn’t understand the term. The dictionary records usage, so I showed you one sense in which many people (biological organisms) use it, including myself.

It is determined by your biology. It was your biology that learned, understands, and speaks English and not Chinese.

Nowhere in the constitution does it say they should look in the dictionary for what an insurrection Is, but that’s what they’ve done.

Oddly enough they didn’t look up what “engage” means, because he wasn’t even present where the event happened, yet they conclude he engaged in it. It’s one of the worst court documents in history.

Excuse my reductions to the absurd because it’s nonsensical. You’re taking acts committed by humans and saying inanimate objects do them. I just can’t get past such weird sophistry.

The judges believe he engaged in insurrection, a federal crime, and are keeping him off the ballot because of it, even though no one has been charged (let alone convicted) of said crime. So much for the constitution. So much for democracy. The United States is now a banana republic.

I suppose then that guns shoot people? Lock them up!

Sorry, guns are killers now. I wonder how they get away with it.

Guns are murderers now. Commands are commanders. We have a little fantasyland going on here.

Right, I was just making sure.

Right, humans command. Humans order. But you believe commands command and orders order. I’m just trying to wade through the magical thinking here.

Fwiw, this is incoherent. The words have no coercive power. The threat of losing his/her job might. But that's not on the judge/s by the other commenter's account.

Why would she lose her job?

Humans don’t command or order, then, only their words do?

Do orders order, commands command, according to you?

Me: They’ve ordered her to remove Trump from the ballot.

You: And their orders are just words. Therefore, if their orders have coerced her then their words have coerced her, which according to you is impossible.

Are people orders now? I don’t get what I’m supposed to be making my mind up about.

And their orders are just words. Therefore, of their orders have coerced her then their words have coerced her, which according to you is impossible.

I didn’t say their orders coerced her. Words cannot coerce. Words cannot order. Words cannot do what you keep trying to pretend they do. I said they ordered her.

No one has been charged with insurrection. You can’t pretend two different crimes are the same. I’m sorry you can’t get past that. Good riddance.

They’ve ordered her to remove Trump from the ballot.

How do they do that? All they've done is printed words on a document. What does it mean for words to "coerce" another. Seems like another word for "influence".

I didn’t say words coerce others. People coerce others.

[However the fact that charges of insurrection were not brought, does not mean that the acts did not constitute an insurrection./quote]

It does not mean that the acts did constitute an insurrection either.

I am blaming the court for coercing the secretary, abusing the law for corrupt ends, and political persecution. But thanks for admitting it’s not the words but the fear in her head that influences her.

How many have been convicted of insurrection?

It’s the fear of force that influences their decision. Sorry.

Well, to be pedantic they're ordering her not to add him to the ballot, but yes.

But so what? Orders are just words and you're a free speech absolutist.

Coercion is not just speech, I’m afraid.

Sure, Dem judges are ordering the Secretary to remove Trump from the ballot. Is that better?

I’m not sure where you’re going with this except into a deeper hole.

This is the sense in which I am using the term.

Biology - the physiology, behavior, and other qualities of a particular organism or class of organisms.
"human biology"

But, given your stance, you should have seen that this was the meaning the word was conveying.

Meaning is not something biology does. The location of meaning is found in the practices of certain social biological organisms.

Yes meaning is a practice of organisms. And each organism is identical to its biology.

Meaning is biological and yet biology cannot explain proper names. Not a lot of use, this idea that meaning is biological.

There’s no use in confusing proper names with meaning, either, but here we are.

Yes, they’re just words, and it’s superstitious to pretend they have power to manipulate the actions of organisms… but law isn’t just words. People are employed to obey and expected to enforce those words, for instance the Secretary. Of course, she can disobey and leave him on the ballot because words don’t have the magical powers you pretend they do, but she’ll be punished.

Words are container of meanings.

The word as vehicle theory. Whereabouts on the word itself is the meaning?

How is a symbol more than the marks, sounds, gestures, of which it is made?

They are actually going to evoke Our Democracy after Dem judges remove their political opponent from the ballot for something no one has been charged with or convicted of. I thought there might be a little pause in the Our Democracy propaganda, at least until the matter is settled, but they’re actually doing it. It’s just terrible optics, or he thinks his voters are stupid, one or the other.

Wow, they’re really doing it. He’s calling Trump a threat to Our Democracy™ right after a majority of Dem judges removed Trump from the ballot for crimes no one has been convicted of. These people are insane.

Like I said, I’m leaning more towards meaning as a biological act. The thing, its location, is the biology. To mean, like thinking, understanding, speaking, and so on, is something the biology does.

I don’t think I can provide a biological account of proper names or any other phrase because there is nothing biological about proper names. I have already said the words are arbitrary and conventional. What I can say is those who have taken up the task of staring at words and sentences in order to divine some coherent philosophy are largely overlooking the most important structures involved in producing them, and as such language in general. I suspect that the most coherent answers will be provided by fields such as biolinguistics.

It's not biological in the way of a leaf or of a toe bone. They have locations.

So, where is the meaning?

Like I said, it’s an act of biology. If you want to find photosynthesis, for instance, you can find it at a leaf. One place you will not find photosynthesis is across, between, and external to leaves.

So far I’m gravitating towards a biological account of meaning, or rather, an act of biology.

The multiple meanings of words suggests to me that people have suppled various meanings to the words rather than the word supplying various meanings to them. The context or “use” may hint at your intention, your meaning, but the meaning itself is not present in the word, context, or use itself.

Name-calling and emojis—the tell-tale signs of good satire.

What have I misread?

You get a little testy every time I take your propaganda away from you. I show that in fact Trump does not compare immigrants to poison, that illegal immigration, a crime, is not the same as illegal immigrants, a group of people, and then you get salty at me for doing so while those who lied to you never receive your ire. It must sting having to think so hard.