Language as an Exploitable Commodity

Using Marxist theory to describe and explain linguistic appropriation

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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.

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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.