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Language often becomes elitist. Sometimes for good reason, it keeps idiots like Donald Trump from understanding things he is incapable of dealing with intelligently or objectively.
@Winterwanderer You and Mrs.Johnson the same person? That"s rather distressing to say the least. She warnt ever purdy!
Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
I thought she was as purdy as a lurdyburd?
@Winterwanderer "Lurdyburd" You have an incredibly unique flair for language. I am humbled you bother with such a pedestrian likes as me sir! I'm nearly dizzy with the vapors and my incredible awe of you.

Picklebobble2 · 56-60, M
I have to say i'm becoming more and more concerned by choice and use of such language here in the UK.

When this Coronavirus thing kicked off it was all (presumably) facts and figures.
Supposedly well qualified medical figures appearing on screen nightly, advising on what was going on and why.

However as this 'event' has gone on more and more obscure people and 'specific medical specialisms' seem to have come to the fore while the government issues yet more and more questionable advice on what the public should do today.

Hasn't helped that this 'advice' often contradicts previous 'advice' given just days earlier.

[quote]Keep going to work ![/quote]
.....but don't get too close to each other !
[quote]If you're old. Stay home !....but we're considering re-opening schools ![/quote]

So people complied....and then you get somebody come forward, shocked that folk are still using busses; trains and Tube in order to actually GET THERE ! and consequently either picking the virus up or even spreading it as a consequence !

I think the whole thing has gone from [quote]scary as Hell ![/quote] to [quote]This is inevitable and you need to start realizing you're likely to get it ![/quote] in just a few short weeks and neither medical profession nor political profession has made the slightest appology.

THAT is both worrying and angering many.
Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
Wow, this is actually the first time I'm hearing something like this in a week.

I don't know if I fully buy into this myself, but someone I know was convinced that the way the Covid 19 ordeal has gone down, at least in America, has not served to actually diminish the virus as significantly as the apparent urgency of words used by government officials and news organizations. The biggest 'diminishing' occurring to smaller businesses and the typical American individual, causing people to become further entrenched in some 'ploy.' Which I don't fully know what they mean in that regard, but I would assume it's regarding the capitalist ruling class, etc.

But I don't think I see that clearly from events yet, so I'm still skeptical of that skepticism.
DeWayfarer · 61-69, M
When politics created it's own science to serve it's own ends. 😒🤷🏻‍♂️
DeWayfarer · 61-69, M
You don't like what they are saying you fire and replace with someone that is closer to what you want. Keep on doing it your bound to find someone that you can agree with.
Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
Sadly I have seen that to be true, don't get me started with the social sciences!
Abstraction · 61-69, M
Say it simply. It hits people.

People often use jargon as a symbol - that they are part of something, usually. Many academics are unable to communicate clearly - they use language again as a symbol to advertise their intelligence.

I don't want to show off my vocabulary or send signals. I want to influence. So Plain English is very powerful and usually all that's needed.
Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
Well put! I won't sully it by trying to expand on it.

I think the world will transform soon, I have a strong intuition it will. The internet provides an infinite set of possibilities, and I'm only beginning to discover its potential.

I think many people lightly believe that but haven't had the chance to discover that for themselves.

The internet I believe is still a key to solving many problems that people face, in education, meaningful communication, I think it will continue to evolve, creating spaces for humanity to expand into itself as it hasn't ever had the opportunity before.

I've discovered an entire quantum reality right underneath my own through almost exclusively YouTube alone, I've connected with physicists and writers to share plausible theories I've begun, all in the span of a few months.

It's 2:30am and I'm not completely sure what I'm getting at, but I hope you're as excited as I am!
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Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
Okay, I have found that many scientific ideas are much better represented in a YouTube video the span of 20 minutes than in dozens of 'reputable' scientific articles.

In the social sciences I've been a bit jarred to see just how frequently the same idea is represented in a collection of disparate words, blurring the actual association between ideas, making separate many things which need not be, using an unnecessarily long word to communicate what could easily be understood in simpler terms.

I believe that the terminology used to discern between ideas should simply correlate with the distinction between ideas, modifier words could be, and are in several circumstances, used to specify where further specification is needed.

Functionality - or using one of sciences own words - pragmatism, in word usage is often exchanged for superfluous photosynthesis. Like building ones credibility, conforming to consensus and paradigm, political and ideological infestation, financial/institutional pressures, etc.
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Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
YouTube has certainly helped me to get initiated into the world of quantum physics, the concepts are not nearly so hard to grasp as the mathematics, so YouTube shines in that regard, as well as Khan Academy.

I'm saddened by the fact that scientists speak in such confusing language, philosophically, a whole branch of understanding is devoted to the importance of word meanings and their ability to define and confine ones understanding, as Sapir and Whorf assume in their theory.

I think science will be limited in its ability to understand as it organizes words which slow the rate and ability for comprehension. Ideas are not able to be fully exchanged between individuals and across disciplines because some irrelevant linguistic warfare serves as a barrier to their communication, understanding, and internalization at every step of the way, and then every other step too.

I recall hearing that there are some scientific writers who are trying to return scientific literature to an elegant form of writing, one which is better able to convey not just the descriptive ability of a word, but the visionary and poetic ability of words, yet without losing the rigor and definition of the sciences.

If anything, I think science communicators similar to Neil DeGrasse Tyson will pick up the slack until then.

 
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