41–50 of 54 posts
I wonder what happened to the "don't tase me" guy who apparently intersected with the "leave Britney alone" guy. http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2007/10/06/
Thanks to Andrew, I discovered Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse :)
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It is all of those things. The language is just a bit overwrought.
My own writing style, for better or worse, tends to hover around a sixth-grade reading level, but I love experiencing authors who have distinct voices, and I especially appreciate ones who have the courage to break out all of the five dollar words and obscure metaphors. In our anti-intellectual culture, doing that really risks mockery (case in point), but I think sophisticated, complex writing can illuminate in ways…
I think calling clear and understandable writing for "anti-intellectual" is the stupidest thing I have heard in a long time.
I agree with your sentiment that writings rich in vocabulary can be a "fun obstacle course" but if you have an actual message you want to convey, it is usually not a good idea to hide it behind an obstacle course.
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Hilarious? I thought it was fantastically thoughtful, insightful and witty.
I agree. But I don't get loins logging. Maybe it's a typo. Maybe lions? Maybe something in French? Or maybe I'm just dense ;)
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It is all of those things. The language is just a bit overwrought.
To be fair, how would you expect him to talk after a decade of people pretending not to understand him because they don't like his message? Even though it's almost nine years later, every day there are so many white people leaving comments on the Chocolate Rain video pretending not to understand what he's talking about that you'd think it was our national sport.
I don't think that's a charitable interpretation. Whether you're black or white, his song is very metaphorical. The underlying tone can generally be understood, and the lyrics aren't nonsense, but it's difficult to comprehend any of them when taken literally.
Of course it's easy to see that the song is related to the plight of black members of society ("chocolate", school books, prisons, "living in a gate"), but the metaphors he uses are definitely not obvious, nor is his exact message obvious without close analysis of the lyrics.
It's pretty ridiculous to assume someone's confusion is an intentional racist aggression. Also, many people genuinely aren't aware of past and present issues black Americans face, so their not recognizing them doesn't somehow mean they approve of them or are dismissive.
I was close friends with an "internet celebrity" ca. 06-07, when she became huge on YouTube. She did get millions of views (I believe; she was on of the earliest to monetise YouTube), ended up pulling everything off after being hacked and abused at her home address. I haven't spoken to her in years but I remember the affect the depraved stuff aome people do - call pizza for delivery, leave things in mailboxes, hack t…
> I haven't spoken to her in years but I remember the affect the depraved stuff aome people do - call pizza for delivery, leave things in mailboxes, hack the computer and steal private files, stalking.... It's just crazy. I think this teaches us that there are two categories of people in large-ish quantities: 1) Lots of imbalanced people out there. 2) Lots of teenagers whose parents didn't instill social skills into…
This brought up so many memories...funny to think of how many of our lives' funniest moments are what we saw on YouTube. A few other memes I thought of worth including: - re Bloomberg's sign-language interpreter, the interpreter at Nelson Mandela's memorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hCdtUxnOG8 - Aleksey Vayner, who posted a video resume titled, "Impossible is Nothing", and then later committed suicide: http:/…
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My own writing style, for better or worse, tends to hover around a sixth-grade reading level, but I love experiencing authors who have distinct voices, and I especially appreciate ones who have the courage to break out all of the five dollar words and obscure metaphors. In our anti-intellectual culture, doing that really risks mockery (case in point), but I think sophisticated, complex writing can illuminate in ways…
That comment is in no way 6th grade level writing. I think calling clear and understandable writing for "anti-intellectual" is the stupidest thing I have heard in a long time. I agree with your sentiment that writings rich in vocabulary can be a "fun obstacle course" but if you have an actual message you want to convey, it is usually not a good idea to hide it behind an obstacle course.
"Clear and understandable" to who? Communication in general, and writing in particular, usually has a target audience. If your audience can grok[1] it, go for it!
As an extreme example, you cannot write a "clear and understandable" PhD thesis in Linguistics while avoiding five-dollar words (to borrow the term).
I think XKCD's "up-goer five" is a suitable counter argument against words that are too simple to clearly communicate complex ideas succinctly. Jargon has its place in language.
1. Meta-excercise: attempt to use the word 'grok' in casual conversation with a non-techie.
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That comment is in no way 6th grade level writing. I think calling clear and understandable writing for "anti-intellectual" is the stupidest thing I have heard in a long time. I agree with your sentiment that writings rich in vocabulary can be a "fun obstacle course" but if you have an actual message you want to convey, it is usually not a good idea to hide it behind an obstacle course.
> I think calling clear and understandable writing for "anti-intellectual" is the stupidest thing I have heard in a long time. "Clear and understandable" to who? Communication in general, and writing in particular, usually has a target audience. If your audience can grok[1] it, go for it! As an extreme example, you cannot write a "clear and understandable" PhD thesis in Linguistics while avoiding five-dollar words (t…
Are you saying up-goer five is a good example of simple word usage or a bad example?
Anyway, parent poster is talking about how we should add rare and hard-to-understand words to make reading a more mentally challenging exercise as opposed to using words that describes the subject matter clearly and concisely, using the simplest words and phrasings that can adequately convey your message.
Your "extreme example" is abused by thousands and thousands of academics as an excuse for poor, hard to read and hard to understand academic writing. You can in fact write clear and concisely in a phd thesis. But since the author assumes the reader has a large background knowledge in the field, it will still not be accessible to the average reader.
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To be fair, how would you expect him to talk after a decade of people pretending not to understand him because they don't like his message? Even though it's almost nine years later, every day there are so many white people leaving comments on the Chocolate Rain video pretending not to understand what he's talking about that you'd think it was our national sport.
>every day there are so many white people leaving comments on the Chocolate Rain video pretending not to understand what he's talking about that I don't think that's a charitable interpretation. Whether you're black or white, his song is very metaphorical. The underlying tone can generally be understood, and the lyrics aren't nonsense, but it's difficult to comprehend any of them when taken literally. Of course it's…
"The same crime has a higher price to pay, The judge and jury swear it's not in the face."
"Every February washed away"
"The bell curve blames the baby's DNA, But test scores are how much the parents made"
Not exactly metaphorical. I have no doubt there are people who don't get it. But there are also a million explanations, not only all around the web but also in the comments section itself. But people keep covering up the explanations by asking what the song is about, which I'm sure occasionally happens purely innocently, but in aggregate it's hard to see as anything but a deliberate attempt to silence black people.
Especially once you compare the comments on this song to the comments on, say, Stairway to Heaven, whose lyrics are 10x as 'metaphorical'.
I would say that he perhaps predicts your comment in the song itself:
"Only in the past is what they say [...] Say it publicly, and you're insane"