Can you tell the difference between these two statements?
Last night we had 3-5 inches of rain in three hours.
Last night we had 3-4 inches of rain in some areas.
The first is the verbal report I got from the TV watcher in my family. The second was what I heard when I happened to be passing through the room at a later time where the TV was on.
To anyone who is paying attention or pausing to think, the two statements are totally different. One, part of the Fake News Weather, is designed to strike fear into the hearts of mortals. Much of the information we are exposed to is presented this way. There are frequent weasel words. They are modifiers that exaggerate the point being expostulated. Many people say... It has been reported... It is possible... the list of escape clauses are endless. We frequently fall for them.
It can come in other forms that I have written about before such as labeling lemon drops a “fat free food” or a rice product as “gluten free”.
Stay alert. Don’t drink the kool-aide. Don’t give out your social security number over the phone. Don’t believe anything you hear from the monogram broadcasters. Don’t believe everything you read, unless I write it, of course. And always count your change.
homo unius libri
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Opus 2023-124: Weasel Words
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.