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Call Them What They Are: Lies
Time to stop playing games with the English language
I hate it when people misuse the English language. I hate it when they replace perfectly good English words with newer ones.
I hate the word “signage”, for example. It’s a sign. It isn’t signage.
The English language has evolved over millennia. It has excellent, specific vocabulary to express nearly every idea a human could ever have.
That is why I used clear and concise language to interact with my students when I was a fifth-grade teacher.
If a child entered the classroom and informed me that his dog had eaten his homework, I did not ask him if he was “sharing false or misleading information.” I asked if he was sure he was telling the truth, and not lying.
When I caught my own teenage kids going to a party in the woods instead of a study session at the library, I didn’t get mad that they were “spreading disinformation.” I got mad because they lied to me.
So you can imagine how disgusted I am every time I hear a newscaster accusing Donald Trump and JD Vance of “sharing disinformation” instead of stating the simple truth: They are lying.
Trump is not being “misleading” when he says he won the 2020 election by a landslide. He’s lying through his teeth. It isn’t a…