Chatter
Chatter in radio terms is a cacophony of various signals adding up to create random noise. Platitudes, catchwords, and the like are a sort of vacuous chatter and are not good for anyone, but are a dumbing-down tool that warp our communications.
Platitudes
Platitudes — tropes, bromides, cliches. Platitudes are banalities, and “sort-of lies,” that help to smooth over relations. Or they can be blatant fallacies, meant to win you over to some bad idea.
“Universe Will Correct Things...”
For a while there, in the ’70s mostly, we heard a lot about TM and meditation, Karma, “Universe-this” and “Universe-that.”
A wise man observed that if you are hungry, you don’t stand around with your mouth open waiting for a roast turkey to fly in.
Instead of standing gape-mouthed awe at “words of wisdom,” like this, recognize that everything we’ve seen all our lives is an indication that, no, universe will not correct things. It requires active positive intervention, not lazy gibberish.
“Surgical Strikes”
A good example of the Labeling Fallacy, used to describe bombings and destruction, when the attackers want to cast an illusion of holiness. Implied in this sort of language is that they are excising the bad part but leaving the good healthy and intact.
This colorful metaphorical language is very powerful and deceptive, but just the fact that they feel the need to concoct some mask like this indicates they’re up to no good.
“Rise above Cancer”
Which means donate your money to us so we can pretend to do research... This worse than useless, phony, condescending slogan is used to emotionally manipulate people into sending money to phony cancer “charities.” Remember, they’ve been around over 100 years, and have accomplished nothing. They have concocted a lot of lies about their successes, of course.
To some, stuff like that is a “positive message of hope,” or something like that. And that’s the problem, that people have a need for such things.
“Forgive and Forget”
A blatant hypocrisy, because when there is a push on to demonize some group or individual, that goes out the window, then it’s a “fight for justice.”
Playing the Heartstrings
“All you need is love,” “Love your enemy,” are nonsense phrases that play on neediness and weakness... the desire for the easy out, the simple solution.
“Let It Be,” is a good example of saying nothing and letting people’s imaginations do the work for them. It seems a very important trick on the part of manipulators, to keep us living in an unrealistic, saccharine la-la land.
Catchwords
“Change"
Another peeve: That old Obama political catchword, “Change.” It’s apparent now, that “Change” is code for “having a black man in charge.” *Groan* — as if being black automatically qualified someone. But people fall for it. That’s how shallow some are, and, yes, “racist.” Anyone that votes based on that should have his or her voting privileges suspended for life. Also, that people even want someone, especially some politician, “in charge,” speaks volumes about their ignorance, dependency and weak will.
If we just interpret “Change,” as “change for the better,” that is something we might call, “The Fallacy of the Vague,” or “The Fallacy of the Non-Committal.” At least, in a way, it’s better than a political lie, because no promise need be broken when nothing tangible is promised.
What is it that makes these words soothing and compelling? Is it the feeling of strength in unity with the other deluded, plus the induced high from unfettered virtue-signaling?
“Extreme” This and That
The power of words: “Extreme tourism.” Before, it would have just been called a crappy vacation. Good slick marketing though.
Linguistic Irritants
Czechoslovakia had a more legit renaming, having to change since the Czech Republic (now Czechia) and Slovakia split, but otherwise, more mindless chatter is involved with this new impulse to change place names, when the old ones serve perfectly well.
It already changed “Bombay” to “Mumbai,” and now India is now talking a change to “Bharat.” But Global Times says India always had three names, India, Bharat and Hindustan.
Of course, Burma chose to be “Myanmar.”
A lot of this stuff is grandstanding where they trumpet that they are “rejecting names assigned in a colonial past.” But history is history, you can't “reject it,” since it just is. Changing names, just to make a statement, though, makes it harder for people to keep up with their geography.
So fey passive-aggressive buggering with place names seems to be used as a tool to foster constant confusion and upheaval.
Between these two fools in an online “debate,” at least one of them shows a bit of logic, in that almost no one with any sense is trying to make this political:
First, I want to say I use "Kyiv", support the legitimacy of the Ukrainian state, and condemn Putin's war of aggression against the state and people of Ukraine. Just want to head off at the pass any questions about that.“It is not merely a linguistic issue, however, not just a difference in one letter or in pronunciation. It is clearly political,”I'd say it's not a "big L" Linguistic issue at all. It's purely political. I don't recall ever taking a class in my linguistics training on the correct linguistic way to refer to cities.“Kyiv means that you transliterate into English from the original Ukrainian name of the Ukrainian capital. By doing so you recognize the fact that it is Ukrainian. By not doing so you question the fact that it is a Ukrainian city,”
Does it mean that? Are English speakers aware that they're making a political statement?
“If you use Kiev you signal (whether you want to or not) that you support Russian imperialism,” said Shevchuk, who just wrote a new Ukrainian dictionary. “Just like you would insist on calling the Polish city of Wroclaw with its German name Breslau as if it were still occupied by the Nazis.”
- Dr. Yuri Shevchuk, lecturer of Ukrainian language in the department of Slavic languages at Columbia University, who is probably just out drumming up publicity for his new book.I think the safest thing to say is that it's a mug's game to ascribe political intent to people who are not aware they're allegedly making political statements. The simple fact that this article is seen as necessary in an American periodical, in order to get people on the "right" side of the subject doesn't indicate political intent; it indicates an overall lack of political intent. Kyiv and Kiev exist pretty much in free variation in English, yet as of the weekend, 75-80% of American voters support a no-fly-zone over Ukraine. I guess we've got a country chock full of people who support Russian imperialism and question Kyiv's status as a Ukrainian city, yet support a maximal effort to keep the city Ukrainian and stand up to Russian imperialism.
Instead of ascribing political intent to speakers who are unaware of the politics behind Kyiv/Kiev, why not just say "The national language of Ukraine is Ukrainian, and in that language, it's spelled Kyiv. Please adjust your style guides." Heck, give them a lesson on the political issues to justify it. Just get ready to be disappointed when a lot of people don't get the memo and support Ukrainian integrity anyway.
They changed the pronunciation back in ’95 but are just getting round to griping about it now? These “Kyiv”-loving punks seem to be tied in to supporting Zelensky, and anyone supporting that fruitcake needs his head examined.
As far as spelling change, it’s unproductive, when there’s no compelling need to change it and create confusion. No, it’s not spelled Kyiv, it’s Київ. Or maybe it’s [ˈkɪjiu̯], who really cares? There’s no easy transliteration, so it seems rational to simply stick with the known English styling, “Kiev.”
Rabble-rousing agitation, the game of blowing things out of proportion, serves to draw attention and facilitate manipulation (we’re back to that again), following exactly the same playbook as race hustlers.
Then there is spelling “Zelensky” as “Zelenskyy.” Double “ys” don’t mean anything in English. Anyone doing that, bugger them, right up the old Zelensky.
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