dear americans - please learn the CORRECT definition of words - BEFORE using them

Also disclosure

It is the action of making new or secret information known. It does not only and automatically mean ET.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: ignorant_ape

... PS - the letter " U " needs to be used correctly too

You mean like "catalogue", "cheque" and "colour"?
Sorry about that; we'll get right on it.

Well, neighbour...that's a start!

a reply to: ignorant_ape

"Words are mouth noises drawn on paper."
-DBCowboy

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: ignorant_ape

"Words are mouth noises drawn on paper."
-DBCowboy

"Mouth noises are brain drawings fallen from the head"
-and14263

originally posted by: Plotus
I think there are those who take themselves far to seriously.

"To" is a preposition. Do you mean "too"?

originally posted by: and14263

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: ignorant_ape

"Words are mouth noises drawn on paper."
-DBCowboy

"Mouth noises are brain drawings fallen from the head"
-and14263

I used to work with kids who had reading comprehension problems. They were kids who took things too literally. So when they read that a tomato plant grew 8' above the ground, they might have a picture in their head of a tomato plant hovering 8' in the air over the ground instead of just growing 8' tall like most of us get.

Part of the opening discussion we would have with these kids is that language is symbolic. Each word makes a picture in our head. If I say "chair", we should all get a certain piece of furniture in our heads and they should all be roughly the same piece of furniture, BUT the chair I see may vary greatly from the one you see. Mine might be a straight-backed kitchen chair while yours might be an over-stuffed easy chair, even though both are basically chairs and perform the same functions more or less and for the purposes of communicating will let us both stay on the same page.

The problem comes in when the ideas/pictures different groups get for certain important terms like "racism" or "justice" diverge so far from each other that we can't even talk about the same thing. That's what's going on in today's society, at least in the US. We have two cultural sides that can't even talk about the same things because we mean very different things when we talk about some very important concepts.

It has very little to do with learning definitions because those definitions are different on purpose.

Reminds me of this.

a reply to: ignorant_ape

You can thank our "news" media for redefining the words. Currently, they're trying to redefine "nationalist" to mean racist.

a reply to: ketsuko

That's a very interesting concept and in many ways reminds me of schemas and top down/bottom up processing.

It’s misuse

From what I have seen in people's reactions these words are being used as triggers as they do invoke a knee jerk reaction in some people. People need to really realize that they are being played on both sides here and wake the hell up to this fact.

I’m a university English professor at a major research institution. You have no idea the agony of reading most undergraduate essays. Some are great, but most are not. I implement major point penalties for these kinds of mistakes and yes, I do mark in red (even their online submissions). I’m under 40 myself so this can sometimes be a major surprise to my little darlings! It’s amazing how quickly they will correct themselves; all it takes is someone to, ya know, enforce the rules.

I read a red read

The one that irks me is common and come on. I see these two mixed up quite a bit.

a reply to: ignorant_ape
Maybe you should add democracy and republic to that list.

Knowing the definition of a word, and understanding its meaning are two different things.

a reply to: ignorant_ape


Dear Non- American,

Please get off of your high horse long enough to realize that the bastardization of language is not just and American phenomenon. It is a world wide problem.

Thanks

For sure. It is a problem because certain groups just parrot buzz words that they hear. a reply to: ignorant_ape

a reply to: ignorant_ape

Please add Nationalism, Nationalists, to the list. Perhaps collusion, should be on the list as well.

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
communist

fascist

nazi

Perhaps the op should learn to capitalize proper nouns? Hmmmm.