Semantics “We are living in humbling times. People are humbled all over the place” Author Drew Kaplan Date 1 February 2017 We are living in humbling times. People are humbled all over the place. Lately...
Semantics “‘Ghetto’ has come to sound like an indictment of a people as well as of a place” Author Drew Kaplan Date 30 January 2017 …the term “ghetto” does seem to have faded somewhat from common usage. In the...
America, Semantics “The uneasy way we discuss ghettos and gentrification says something about our discomfort with the real-estate market…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 4 January 2017 The uneasy way we discuss ghettos and gentrification says something about our discomfort with...
Races in America, Semantics “This is the end result of redefining racism to mean malice in one’s heart” Author Drew Kaplan Date 31 August 2016 Trump…seems to understand that charges of racism are essentially toothless, because the bar of...
Races in America, Semantics “’Racism’ spent the first half of the 20th century in competition with another word, ‘racialism’, though neither featured prominently in our national conversation” Author Drew Kaplan Date 25 August 2016 The first cited use of “racism” in The Oxford English Dictionary comes from 1902,...
Semantics “The right-wing rhetoric around ‘P.C.’ has always made use of martial metaphors…with a sly wink” Author Drew Kaplan Date 4 August 2016 The right-wing rhetoric around “P.C.” has always made use of martial metaphors — the...
Semantics, Technology “The word” smart “is flattering to both the objects and their users, even as it threatens to become a hazy banality” Author Drew Kaplan Date 4 July 2016 In the land rush to digitize the world, the home is the new frontier....
Semantics “Language not only captures experience, it conditions it” Author Drew Kaplan Date 30 June 2016 Language not only captures experience, it conditions it. It sets expectations for experience and...
Semantics “The vogue for ‘smart’ traces at least as far back as the ‘smart bomb,’ precision-guided munitions made to be more accurate than the dumb bombs of wars past…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 23 June 2016 The vogue for “smart” traces at least as far back as the “smart bomb,”...
Semantics “‘A thing’…corresponds to a real need we have, to catalog and group together the items of cultural experience, while keeping them at a sufficient distance…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 21 June 2016 Clearly, cultural phenomena have long existed and been called “fads,” “trends,” “rages” or have...