I can’t get over how nonsensical Trump sounds sometimes. From yesterday’s trip to the border:

…millions of people from places unknown, from countries unknown, who don’t speak languages. We have languages coming into our country, we have nobody that even speaks those languages. They are truly foreign languages, nobody speaks them.

What?! 🇺🇸

@manton But Biden is the senile one….

Unknown languages. Unknown places. 😂

@Brian I was laughing just as I was typing it up. I'd love to know where this came from... It must've started as some real-ish fact that he twisted until it was meaningless.

@manton The people coming into our country speaking in Sumerian and Coptic are a real problem.

@manton Seeking asylum from the unexplored ocean depths. Looking to escape the iron fist of Atlantis.

@manton 97% of asylum seekers at the southern border speak Spanish, 1.7% Portuguese.

People who speak rare/indigenous languages appear to make up at worst 1.3% of asylum cases.

@manton It's Newspeak (Yes, seriously. It makes complete sense to those for whom the message is meant — which is not you or I).

@flargh 🤣

@patrickrhone I hadn't thought of it that way... A little scary.

@manton Yep. Also explains the doublethink.

@manton Also, have I ever explained my dog's name is Winston (after Winston Smith, the protagonist).

I'm, um, a big fan of the book.

@manton Projector Orange is just doin' his thang again, that's all. He has 0 clues about these things and can't understand other languages and just assumes/exaggerates nobody can understand them!

If he saw me speaking Japanese to my family, he'd probably have an out-of-body experience I suppose.

@patrickrhone A very compelling opinion indeed. Think about all the stupid little buzzwords that are floating around when discussing political ideology these days. Newspeak all the way.

@manton Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.

https://youtu.be/ke5Mr5eCF2U

@manton It would be comical except that millions of people think he is smart.

@starrwulfe Yep.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think Orwell was some sort of fortune teller or visionary. Quite the contrary. All he needed to do was look at the authoritarian regimes around him, figure out how they worked, and realize that it could just as easily happen anywhere with the right conditions and motivations.

That was the warning.

@manton Right, and Biden is the one everyone says has cognitive decline.

@manton He constantly sounds like the kid trying to write a book report without actually reading the book.

@patrickrhone 1984 is one of my favorite books, too. I'm really excited to delve into Julia soon.

@flargh @manton “You have all these people, coming from Latin America, no one here speaks Latin.”

@sod I've heard good things but I'm a little scared of it.

@manton not speaking as professional here, but I think the trick with understanding that man is the “feel of it” rather than the “think of it.” I imagine someone listening to that and saying to themselves “yeah, I don’t speak any of those weird languages! They should just learn English!”

😫

@manton what language was that? 🤭

@patrickrhone Scared… like it might potentially mess up your relationship with the original?

@manton He is speaking the "Talking out of your ass" language.

@skoobz Exactly. In fact, he IS that kid.

@sod Yep. That.

@patrickrhone Yeah, I can see that. I'll let you know if it breaks my brain.

@patrickrhone @manton It’s just like when bigots say they’re “against pronouns”. They’re not actually against pronouns in language, they just don’t want to respect people’s pronouns (those of trans people specifically).

@torb I've long been impressed by how effortlessly those of my daughter's peers handle this. They use they/them pronouns when speaking of anyone for whom they do not know the preferred pronouns of and then switch effortlessly once they learn.

@patrickrhone this is so smart. I will build this habit, too.

@manton Someone should talk to him in Aramaic and ask if that should be ok. Nope? Sorry, Jesus.

@patrickrhone We have two colleagues who often work together. One goes by she/her and the other by they/them. So when I have to tell others about the work both did, I have to say, "they did it quite well...well, not they/them but them they. Breaks my brain but I'm sure I'll get used to it. We should just use they/them for everyone and invent another word for a group thing. Also, doesn't help that when I say "telling others", the others are Boomers or much older GenX

@agilelisa We should just let the kids run things. They have it all figured out.

@pratik Probably not a bad thing and solves a whole host of issues.

@pratik Agree that English should have non-gendered third person singular. It would solve so many problems. For the "talking about their work" issue - maybe always say "they both" when you mean both of them, to distinguish from the singular "they"? Like saying "you all" when talking to a group, versus "you" (or "you, Nina") when talking to a single person in a group.

@MultoGhost more like y’all

@manton Nobody immigrates any more, it’s too crowded.

@manton He probably saw a piece in the NYT a couple of days ago about how NYC has become a haven for endangered languages.

@manton sounds to me like he is talking about himself there. ;)