Heh. OK. It was merely an analogy. Personally, I object to the identification of fetishism with paraphilia. I also object with the requirement that paraphilias be solely sexual. I don't have a *name* for tech bros who are more obsessed with their tech than they are with the problems/solutions associated with that tech. This is the source of my objection to Nick's obsession with metaphor. (FWIW, my criticisms of Nick's rhetoric do not translate to that I've seen from you.)
The tech bros are analogous to the "looksmaxers". And it all falls under the concept of the cargo cult, where people confuse the incidentals or the aesthetic with the underlying mechanisms. I also sometimes call them "formalists", people obsessed with the form to the detriment of the function. And that I don't have a trustworthy moniker for this tendency, for these people, I have to rely on analogy. Grammar nazis are akin to paraphiliacs, perhaps absent the fetishism. *But* ... but but but, there is a kind of prurient or peurile (maybe even "innocent") sense to such obsessions. This is one reason phrases like "* porn" where the * can be anything from cars to spiders. It's that "gooner" ability ... to gaze at one funny cat video after another for HOURS on end, with no purpose/objective in sight ... to just wallow in the "fetish". So "categorically"? No, I don't think so. But in the specifics of any one particular specialist domain, sure. I get it. On 3/20/26 7:43 AM, Prof David West wrote:
[An aside: I know a lot about fetishism, another aspect of my NSFW self, and the insinuation of such with regard this topic is categorically wrong!]
> [⛧] A good analogy, here, is that of paraphilia > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraphilia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraphilia>>. You have a fetish. Rather > than a metaphor *enhancing* your ability to see the world, you've > fetishized them. You think the metaphor *is* the world. Like a > fetishist, you're aroused by the tool, not the objective.
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