First, you can cut out a third of the words in a sentence and still comprehend the gist of the message. ‘Proper nomenclature’ might be important in a college essay or a legal writ but in the real world people slur their words and mishear the replies and still manage to get the point across. Words aren’t numbers; any word can have a dozen different meanings.
Look at former NYC Mayor LaGuardia. Back in the day he ran on a Fusion Ticket that included Socialists, Communists, and Republicans? You could spent a lifetime trying to sort out the exact definition of what he was. Do you think Nazi Germany was ‘Socialist’ because of National Socialism.
Second, how much comprehension is actually needed? Do you need to understand the difference between alternating current and direct current to know when to use batteries and when to plug a device into the wall? Do I have to understand aerodynamics to buy an airline ticket? Does someone have to know every single position a candidate holds in order to decide to vote for them?
But that’s the issue, I disagree that “we manage to get the point across”. A lot of the times we simply don’t
Do you think Nazi Germany was ‘Socialist’ because of National Socialism
And you bring up a great point here, about why it matters to have proper understanding of terms. Otherwise you’d be likely to lump in Nazism in with socialist ideologies. And that has happened a lot. People have used this exact line of reasoning to demonize socialism
This website might not be a college essay, but it is a forum, where ideally you go to to see different perspectives and learn something about something. So I think this discussion perfectly fits here, why should you limit gaining knowledge to an essay or legal writ? There’s no rush to get your point across
As for the rest, no you do not need to know the specific differences between AC or DC… but you better know there is a difference, lest you’ll blow a device up if you try to do anything non-standard (like, say, plugging a computer up to a backup power supply. You need to make sure it’s an UPS that outputs a proper sine wave, lest things will go wrong with your PC’s PSU expecting one, but getting a DC input instead). And you might not need to know every single detail of you candidate… but I hope you do actually know what their positions are, yes
So, you agree with me 99% but will fight to the death over the last 1%?
Let’s take your last paragraph. There are plenty of kids who can hook up the PC, a video game console, and Grandma’s VCR and make them all work together without having the least idea of why it works. They know that this plug goes here and not there and that’s enough for them. None of them can tell a sine wave from a tsunami.
And you completely ignored LaGuardia being able to be a Communist and a Republican at the same time. He happily ignored the contradiction and got both to agree that he was the best man for the job.
I ignored it because I’m not American and I had no idea what you were referencing, sorry. I got my own qualms with American terminologies but that’s a different discussion
So, you couldn’t be bothered to take 30 seconds to search for something I mentioned, but I am supposed to fall in line and accept all your definitions and points of view?
First, now you’re trying to move the goal posts. If you didn’t know who LaGuardia was you should have mentioned it right away.
Second, let’s jump to your latest comment and start from there.
If LaGuardia is irrelevant to the current situation, why is Marx relevant? He’s been dead longer than Fiorello.
You’re the one demanding we use antique terms, and chastising me for trying to update them.
Finally, everything you’ve posted has proved my first point, that there are people on the Left who will argue and argue instead of trying to build consensus
Two points.
First, you can cut out a third of the words in a sentence and still comprehend the gist of the message. ‘Proper nomenclature’ might be important in a college essay or a legal writ but in the real world people slur their words and mishear the replies and still manage to get the point across. Words aren’t numbers; any word can have a dozen different meanings.
Look at former NYC Mayor LaGuardia. Back in the day he ran on a Fusion Ticket that included Socialists, Communists, and Republicans? You could spent a lifetime trying to sort out the exact definition of what he was. Do you think Nazi Germany was ‘Socialist’ because of National Socialism.
Second, how much comprehension is actually needed? Do you need to understand the difference between alternating current and direct current to know when to use batteries and when to plug a device into the wall? Do I have to understand aerodynamics to buy an airline ticket? Does someone have to know every single position a candidate holds in order to decide to vote for them?
But that’s the issue, I disagree that “we manage to get the point across”. A lot of the times we simply don’t
And you bring up a great point here, about why it matters to have proper understanding of terms. Otherwise you’d be likely to lump in Nazism in with socialist ideologies. And that has happened a lot. People have used this exact line of reasoning to demonize socialism
This website might not be a college essay, but it is a forum, where ideally you go to to see different perspectives and learn something about something. So I think this discussion perfectly fits here, why should you limit gaining knowledge to an essay or legal writ? There’s no rush to get your point across
As for the rest, no you do not need to know the specific differences between AC or DC… but you better know there is a difference, lest you’ll blow a device up if you try to do anything non-standard (like, say, plugging a computer up to a backup power supply. You need to make sure it’s an UPS that outputs a proper sine wave, lest things will go wrong with your PC’s PSU expecting one, but getting a DC input instead). And you might not need to know every single detail of you candidate… but I hope you do actually know what their positions are, yes
So, you agree with me 99% but will fight to the death over the last 1%?
Let’s take your last paragraph. There are plenty of kids who can hook up the PC, a video game console, and Grandma’s VCR and make them all work together without having the least idea of why it works. They know that this plug goes here and not there and that’s enough for them. None of them can tell a sine wave from a tsunami.
And you completely ignored LaGuardia being able to be a Communist and a Republican at the same time. He happily ignored the contradiction and got both to agree that he was the best man for the job.
I ignored it because I’m not American and I had no idea what you were referencing, sorry. I got my own qualms with American terminologies but that’s a different discussion
So, you couldn’t be bothered to take 30 seconds to search for something I mentioned, but I am supposed to fall in line and accept all your definitions and points of view?
That’s pretty funny.
Fine, let’s play your game
A mayor from almost 100 years ago is irrelevant to this discussion. I don’t know about you, but I was talking about contemporary times here
Is this really how you wanna discuss?
First, now you’re trying to move the goal posts. If you didn’t know who LaGuardia was you should have mentioned it right away.
Second, let’s jump to your latest comment and start from there.
If LaGuardia is irrelevant to the current situation, why is Marx relevant? He’s been dead longer than Fiorello.
You’re the one demanding we use antique terms, and chastising me for trying to update them.
Finally, everything you’ve posted has proved my first point, that there are people on the Left who will argue and argue instead of trying to build consensus