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In The Future We May All Talk Like Trump, Linguist Warns. Sad.
#1
President Donald Trump is colonizing our brains with his drumbeat of repetitive words and phrases, an American linguist warns.

According to George Lakoff, an emeritus professor of cognitive science and linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, constant repetitions actually create physical changes in our brains by forging stronger connections in our neural pathways, “Language activates an idea and a circuitry in your brain. Every time a circuit is activated, its synapses get stronger,” Lakoff told Deutsche-Welle in an interview published Sunday.

In other words, the more you hear things — and say things — the stronger the circuitry becomes.  Plus, the absorbed words can begin to reframe our perception of the world. Lakoff pointed to President George W. Bush’s constant use of “tax relief,” which essentially defines taxes as an affliction. Soon Democrats and the media were also using the phrase, and in essence, changed their perception of reality.

Even if you disagree with an idea and contradict it, the words still worm their way into your head.
“Every time you deny something overtly using the language of the person you are trying to contradict, you are actually helping that person,” Lakoff said.

Besides repetitions of his pet phrases, Trump also uses other language-distorting strategies in his tweets. He frames situations in his own terms. He diverts attention from issues he wants to be ignored. He attacks the messenger or blames someone. Finally, he launches a trial balloon by saying something outrageous.

What to do?

“You are not puppets,” Lakoff said. “Cut the strings.” Don’t use the same language Trump uses. “Use the language that conveys the truth,” Lakoff added.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tru...mg00000009
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist  but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.


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#2
Good warning from Lakoff. He is well-qualified to warn us.

This is yuuuge. I am bigly impressed, that I can tell you. Nobody knows more about language than me. I've got the biggest brain and I know the most words. But it's all fake news. I am bringing America back, and fake news media is the enemy of the people. I think Obama and Hillary Clinton are responsible. Bad guys. what????
"I close my eyes, and I can see a better day" -- Justin Bieber

Keep the spirit alive;
Eric M
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#3
I see from the subject line and the text of the first response that it's already too late for you two.
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#4
(01-27-2018, 08:11 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: I see from the subject line and the text of the first response that it's already too late for you two.

You don't catch the irony. Or maybe you do.

"Trumpspeak" is easy to mock.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist  but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.


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#5
Right. Nobody knows more about irony than we do, believe me. Not like those Trumpsters who give us fake irony. Really sad.
"I close my eyes, and I can see a better day" -- Justin Bieber

Keep the spirit alive;
Eric M
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#6
Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin once remarked Trump is the only American president he understands without subtitles.

And maybe not only because of that. Liu's way of thinking is suspiciously similar to Trump's. He imagined a "dark forest universe" where supercivilizations have nothing better to do than annihilate each other. Someone called Trump a Malthusian here, well Liu is a cosmic ultra-Malthusian. I think it's more likely for supercivilizations to see all thinking beings as fellow souls. Morality grows with civilization, or if it doesn't self-destruction follows. And if there is indeed a fundamental scarcity of resources in the Cosmos, civilizations learn to curb their population growth like we already are.
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#7
I have just been watching the movie The Watchmen, a dystopian scenario (Richard Nixon has won a third term under questionable circumstances after getting away with Watergate, and he has become extremely reckless in foreign policy. The backstory isn't clear to me -- how does America get that bad? America looks much like Michigan Avenue in Detroit, which is not to be confused with Michigan Avenue in Chicago or even neighboring Dearborn. I could live in Dearborn; I concur with the Islamic disdain for vice. Plenty of Christians and Jews go along with that. (In case you are unfamiliar with Michigan Avenue in Detroit, its only place of honor was old Tiger Stadium. The rest was a strip of sexually-oriented businesses and liquor stores, with addicts, drunks, whores, pimps, and johns to offend my sensibilities. I remember one marquee that proclaimed to offer "Sophisticated Adult Entertainment". There might be eastern Europeans there, but they are certainly not performing Rachmaninoff on the piano or Chekhov on the stage.

Go ahead and visit Dearborn. It has an impressive mosque and plenty of kebab houses. You can get a drink in a quiet bar. But if you go to Dearborn on Michigan Avenue (US 12), then stop short of the Detroit city limits.

Well, we have been spared a second term of you-know-who, and that would already be dystopian. There would already be a Stasi-like secret police well entrenched by now. I'm guessing that it would have a name such as "Patriotic Guard", and anyone who makes something unflattering out of the initials (PiGs) would do so at grave risk of anything valuable. America would likely be partners in crime with Russia and China. Political discussion would reduce to praise for the Great and Infallible Leader.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist  but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.


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