“More ominous than the president’s impoverished
vocabulary is that he cannot string together sentences that make sense. This
replicates not only the shoddy vocabulary of television, but more importantly
the incoherence of television. Trump is able to communicate with tens of
millions of Americans, also raised in front of screens, because they too have
been linguistically and intellectually mutated by digital images. They lack the
ability to detect lies or think rationally. They are part of our post-truth
culture. ”
—Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, “Worshipping the Electronic Image,” Truthdig, Feb.
18, 2019.
• Editorial Comment: Is it too late to cut the cable?
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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD
“I
don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If
you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a
little.” —Tom Stoppard
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