Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
There's nothing wrong with using words well. However, words can also hide meaning, twist logic and confuse issues, a fact known by some very experienced speakers... and politicians, and con men, and ad executives, and writers. Effective communication can exist without words... they are only one tool in our communications toolbox, and there are so many others we ignore when we use words exclusively, as the web prompts us to do.
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Other effective tools: a winning smile, a twinkling eye, a big fist, an angry glare.
None of which clarify meaning, all meant to either deceive or intimidate. It is *these* tools in the hands of con men and politicians that deceive people.
Yes, words can be twisted, but not half so much as all the social cues we're trained to defer to.
The very social cues that the Internet allows us to bypass. The ability to communicate via video has existed on the web for a long time, but most people still prefer to communicate verbally. You seem to think that's a bad thing, I think it's a good thing.
It's not just avoiding prejudice, although that is a factor, it's also avoiding physical and emotional intimidation. It's leveling the playing field, in ways no one imagined when I was young.
And I say, 'good!'