Certain words have been given too much power. If a word has "power", it causes another person's brain to flash in certain areas, regions of control where our flight/fight mechanism lies and emotional triggers can occur. The
amygdala helps coordinate responses to things in your environment, especially those that trigger an emotional response. This structure plays an important role in fear and anger.
What Part of the Brain Controls Emotions? Fear, Happiness, Anger, Love
There are some very interesting studies out there about how brain images show how when asked a political question, the brain will light up in the amygdala region, as opposed to the frontal cortex where logical decision making resides. Here is just one worth a look:
Your Brain on Politics: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Liberals and Conservatives If you prefer watching a video here:
How Political Questions Mess With Your Brain
So, what are some new words that are crucial to enhancing communication?
In April of 2020, Merriam Webster's Dictionary added 435 new words to our language. Most words involve technology, specialty medical areas, and included various new words and phrases related to COVID-19 SARS.
We Added New Words to the Dictionary for April 2020
My personal favorite new word created and supported by Webster's:
Truthiness: a seemingly truthful quality not supported by facts or evidence. I'm sorry, but seriously.... truthiness? Who says that exactly? Will "lyingness" be a new word to represent lying? What I really want to know is which media source first used this word? Each time a news network uses the word truthiness, a fine of $5,000.00 should be imposed for obvious attempts to dumb down the viewers! Not only the person who says it, but the editor, and corporate head should be fined. It's similar to when the media started coming up with "catchy phrases" they knew people would repeat like "streetcar Sally" and the like. Who is best served when the public at large is dumbed down? Now that's the more important question.
As we know, words are crucial in order to effectively communicate, with sharing an understanding almost instantly about what a word means, or, debating the meaning as with this thread. It's interesting to debate the definition of words from differing perspectives. I still have to question (in total baffled mode) words that are being listed in well-known dictionaries. Two examples, first: finna, defined by Webster's as "an informal pronunciation spelling of “fixing to” do something" and the new word: contactless which is presumably a step up from saying no contact? lol Are they desperate to keep up with the cool kids instead of having some words stay within urban dictionaries but feel they have to keep up? Hey, it's okay to be cool, wear shades, and go around cussing really loud so others hear you (hey, they need a word for that behavior asap so people don't have to type out "go around cussing really loud" and just go for one word responses. Maybe communication will become so narrow that we can all just sit back, and say very little. All will be known. lol Okay, admittedly reading that word truthiness has me triggered
Many words have "too much power" because subsets of the population give them that power. The US mainstream media enforces the idea to ALWAYS be on the lookout for anything that resembles even the slightest hint of a slam, instead of focusing on maintaining your own positive outlook regardless of what others say.
Of course we know about the words/phrases that have been around for a long time which are used intentionally to get a reaction and unfortunately, can be quite effective as far as lowering the bar. I hate hearing/seeing a few words that have been given such power (words not allowed on this forum), and when someone chooses to "go there" they lose points big time in the name of overly, defensive posturing. A real waste of time and void of any worthwhile result. All you have to do is visit a political or religious chatroom for confirmation to see how words can be used like weapons, that is IF the receiver of the message decides to play the game. I've been caught up in it myself when baited, mostly emotionally, and it's a no-win situation.
If hostile venting online reduces violent crimes in the streets than that's a plus, but it's at least equally likely that these types of exchanges amplify the divisions in society already established and the exact intent of the writer/speaker. Another reason people use derogatory words that have been given too much power is when defending family, a friend , or fellow chatter. Humans in tribal mode are fierce creatures. The fact that we are here today is living proof our primal programming allowed evolution to happen just knowing what it took early on to survive. Our world has changed significantly, but there is so much room for progress we'll be viewed as "advanced primitives" or "primates who were good at getting around but were mostly clueless about how to act" by future generations.
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