I listened to a Ted Talk the other day that was given by a linguist and university profess of English, whose point was that the language is always changing, and that we shouldn’t be so rigid in our interpretation of others’ speech and writing. As an example, she said that a few hundred years ago, the word “lollygag” meant to make out / kiss.
The problem I have with this is that window stickers like the one shown here simply make you look like an idiot. I heard a television commentator covering a golf tournament describe an errant shot like this: “That ball could have went anywhere.”
While it’s true that the language is always in flux, poor grammar makes it hard for other people to take you seriously.
At left is a recent post by a “friend” on FB. A couple of points that illustrate how inane and dangerous social media can be:
- This is a hoax that was debunked that year.
- Protesting the U.S. support for what’s happening in Gaza is far different than “organizing pro-Hamas rallies.”
- Objecting to the free expression of ideas is unAmerican.
Of course, stupidity exists even in the absence of social media, but there is no doubt that it accelerates that rate at which crap like this can be promulgated throughout our society.
To accept what House Speaker Mike Johnson says here, you’ll have to pretend that you received your DOGE and Tariff checks, that grocery and gasoline prices aren’t through the roof, that the national debt didn’t just break the $40 trillion barrier, and that the United States has won the illegal and pointless war in Iran.
OK, we’re stupid, but there must be a limit.
Please tell me there is a limit.
There are so many obnoxious features of Trump’s offer to bribe voters that it’s impossible to count them all.
Something that jumps out at me is that I live among people whose integrity is for sale for $5000.
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