As IF Times

Source: Donald Trump’s treatment of a crying baby reveals his total lack of empathy | Jonathan Freedland | Opinion | The Guardian

The word of the day is now faux.  Not to be confused with the Vietnamese soup, pho, which is savory and delectable.   No, I mean faux as in the affected outrage, angst and furor directed at The Donald for any and all of his utterances, which is definitely un-savory.  Like jackals baying and snapping at a presumptive victim, the popular media are circling Trump looking to exploit any possible weakness to tear him apart.

It’s like a large scale version of junior high girls whereby any and every utterance of the bullied victim is subject to ridicule and taunting.  Of course this is delicious irony since Trump is also no stranger to puerile insults.  Name calling now passes as witty debate during this election cycle.  But for those with naïve and already made up minds, faux outrage can make an indelible impression on their views.

We recall the last election when Mitt Romney set tongues a cluckin’ with his revelation of placing the family dog on the car roof during road trips, Beverly Hillbillies style.  The wailing from the PETA crowd was like keening at an Irish funeral.  Unlike eating a dog, which is acceptable if you one day become President, roofing a dog is beyond the pale.  So, Romney antagonized the dog crowd and was painted as an insensitive rich guy.  Romney didn’t address the incidents directly since it was too ridiculous to answer for.  The Donald ain’t takin’ any of that.

The recent ‘trumped up’ incident involving  Khizr Khan, father of the hero veteran stirred predictable media outrage at Trump because his retort was ‘insulting’.  While Trump did not in fact disparage the heroism of the son, he made an oblique remark about the ability of the Muslim wife to make comment, which would not be unusual for Muslims.  So the cascade of ‘racist’, ‘shameful’, ‘intemperate’, yada yada yada condemnations from media and pundits alike, rained upon Trump like expletives at a rap concert.  Meanwhile the mother of an American killed in Benghazi was criticized for grandstanding when she spoke of her son’s heroism.  Clint Eastwood spoke for many when he today said, “The pussy generation needs to just ‘f**king get over it”  Eloquently and succinctly said; the oppression of politically correct speech may finally be coming to an end; which is the primary reason for Trump’s ascendancy to popularity.

The faux indignation for anything connected to Trump would have more validity if not for the Orwellianly labelled Progressives’ penchant for ascribing anything not aligned with their worldviews as being evil and malevolent. Meanwhile, they tie themselves up in Gordian knots explaining the illogical positions of their culture warriors; for example, John Kerry’s assertion that air conditioners are a bigger threat to mankind than ISIS.  Laugh out loud stuff from over there. Can’t wait to see what Trump will do next to set the left off in sputtering faux rage.  He can tell them they fight like 12 year old girls.

Source: Apples plan to change pistol emoji will sow confusion, retroactively alter meaning – Business Insider

Without a doubt, the advent of the GUI interface, widely popularized by Apple, changed the way that computers and smartphones are used and has given rise to an entire industry of app developers intent on making services and communications more accessible to all users regardless of levels of literacy.

It’s no coincidence that I-Pads became the pacifier of choice for people babysitting small children. The manipulation of colorful objects on the screen captivates young minds and they can be left alone for hours amusing themselves.  The ease of communicating and navigating by pointing and moving fingers is basic and obviates the need to have any language skills. Playing games on the small screen became a standard skill acquired by all kids.

Building upon that enormous base as children move into adulthood, phone and app makers have extended that formative phase into products that retain their customer base.  Nowadays, people can communicate on their devices by swiping, entering emojis and clicking on icons in lieu of actually forming a written thought.  It’s as if the evolution of language skills are regressing backwards.

When people first began to communicate visually, it was undoubtedly with simple pictograms and symbols crudely representing ideas.  Obviously, this left some room for ambiguity since many people don’t draw well.  Even if you drew a hand, did that mean stop? give me more? the number five? or look at my new glove?  Eventually, the Chinese assembled pictograms into a cohesive language but there was still plenty of room for ambiguity since their pictograms represented ideas more than precise definitions.

Eventually, someone invented the alphabet and voila, much more precise communication was possible.  How-to manuals were much easier to follow as were medical procedures.  Somewhere along the way, language began to fray at the edges as variations and distortions of language came into acceptance as pop culture personalities bastardized their accepted constructs.  It may be only a matter of time before spoken language reverts back to a series of clicks, pops and grunts.

The written language is already reverting back to infantile levels with the substitution of amusing and cute emojis for clever, witty dialogue.  The fascination with symbols, emojis,  games and icons may be extending adolescence and the affinity for cuteness for an entire generation. People have never been so hooked on virtual life as they have recently with video apps and games.   Think of the Pokemon go phenomenon sweeping the world now.  It’s only a matter of time before Hello Kitty becomes  a mascot for a college football team.  While convenient for device users, there’s another side to this convenience of communication, a darker side; social engineering.

Phone apps are ironically contributing to the demise of literacy in the modern world.  Nuanced conversations now revolve around the interpretations of the expressions on an emoji sent or received rather than the relative certainty of a written phrase.  Soon it will be acceptable for academic theses to be submitted using only emojis and pictograms leading to actual academic towers of babble. White face and horizontally striped shirts will be all the rage as mimes become the high priests of communication.  We’re moving towards a dark period of human evolution when accepted communication begins to resemble ransom notes from a 3 year old.

I sign off with this message:

pardon the spelling.