Language as an Exploitable Commodity
Using Marxist theory to describe and explain linguistic appropriation
Brief disclaimer
This is the third of a multi-part article series based on a paper I originally wrote for a University rhetoric course. If you missed parts one and two, I recommend reading those first.
I broke it into sections and made edits to make it easier to read, so I hope you enjoy.
Introduction
As mentioned previously, I will rely upon Jeremy Bentham’s theories of utilitarianism and Karl Marx’s criticisms of capitalism to help explain the phenomenon of appropriation and exploitation of sign language on social media. I will discuss numerous themes of behaviourism, digital dualism, ableism, exoticism, and capitalism to analyze how they influence our behaviour on social media.
I will then turn to Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx’s principles of socialism to investigate whether a more ethical, equitable framework is possible on our modern social media platforms.
Before I do that, however, I must first prove that language is a commodity in the Marxist sense in order to use Marxist theory to explain its exploitation, and to offer up alternative solutions.
