carol's contemplations

I hate writing formal emails, absolutely despise it. It's always this awkward ballet of avoiding sounding too forceful or arrogant while still being concise about your message. Also, don't get me started on using periods. They always sound SO despondent or serious that I end up interjecting random exclamation! points! in! my! emails! to! sound! more! chipper! When communicating with peers, it's so simple, so casual; nothing needs to be dressed up, and intentions are clear. But when conversing with adults age 40+, it's a completely different experience with much more tiptoeing and one that requires much more effort, since, as Pinker discussed, indirect speech has two purposes: to communicate AND maintain a relationship. I'll provide an example. As a part of Step on Poverty's (a club I'm part of) business initiative, we often have to communicate with business owners through text or email. Recently, I was helping one of these businesses switch their work emai...

I used to be one of those ride-or-die PC culture activists when I was younger. I followed tons of Instagram feminist/social justice accounts and subscribed to their every word. I thought I was one of the good guys and that everyone else who thought differently from how I thought was a bad guy, a racist, a homophobe, an all-around horrible person. As I grew older, I began to realize that life isn't so black and white. Sure, there are actions and words that are almost universally considered "bad," but other than that, everything is a gray area, a spectrum up to interpretation.  I began to see the radical nature of some of the posts on these accounts; I began to understand how one-sided their arguments were and how inaccurately they depicted situations, even flat out lying sometimes to support their narrative (NOT ALL ACCOUNTS THOUGH). Anyway, "The Word Police" reminded me of my experience with these accounts that claimed that certain words are bad and can neve...