The core postructuralist idea that meaning is constructed and negotiated rather than being inherent *is not* the same as saying that nothing actually means anything. What it's saying is that meaning isn't a property *of* objects or ideas.
@starkatt Oh my god, thank you. The furry-hatin'-furries brigade gave me a lot of crap for my postmodernist/poststructuralist sympathies Back In The Day, and that was one of the things I always struggled to pound into their heads: "I'm not saying there is no such thing as objective truth. I'm saying neither of us is ever going to find it, schmuck. It's just not available on this neurological platform. Because language is an evil lyin' goddamn space virus." ;)
@starkatt Trying to explain to them that this NEVER meant that all belief systems were equally correct... just that everything we're ever going to use to judge their validity is gonna have to be CONNECTED to something, some underlying premise or value system that's GONNA be biased one way or the other. There's just no way outta that.
I hope I'm making some shred of sense, I... I could never tell back then, either. XD
@starkatt (Random thought: if you're into this stuff, I'm curious how familiar you are with Buddhist metaphysics? There is a lot of good stuff in Mahayana that bears an uncanny resemblance to poststructuralism mixed with a bit of religious woo.)
Couple random links:
