One time when I was walking in Central Park, a branch fell from a really tall tree, perhaps a 50- to 60-foot drop. A squirrel was on that branch when it fell, and the branch hit the cement path with a loud thud.
The squirrel lay there on its back, quivering.
I knew it was totally screwed. Its back was probably broken, but it was clearly still alive.
"Fuck," I thought to myself. "Look at how much it's suffering. Should I kill it to put it out of its misery?"
I stood there pondering t...
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assumptions
How word choice subtly manipulates us
It's remarkable the degree to which language can paint a picture of something being good or bad, or someone being trustworthy or unreliable, without actually making any factual claims. The more aware of this you become, the more you start seeing it all over the place. Language is often not neutral and objective even when it professes to be. We all know that language can have positive or negative connotations without actually claiming anything specific, but I think it's easy to underestimate how...
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