Monthly Series: Learning

Monthly Series: Learning

Nov

Oct

Sep

Jun

May

Mar '24

Lexicon for the New Zeitgeist

New Lexicon
While listening to popular podcasts, I keep stumbling upon new words that have gained traction in describing this polarized Zeitgeist. I get that. Language evolves to accomodate shifts in culture and society. Finally, I had to ask ChatGPT all these new words that have gained traction in this tumultous social landscape (given the great divide in the forthcoming US presidential election).

ChatGPT and my 2-cents

1. Identity politics - when groups with shared experiences (LGBTQ) form a political movements to address perceived systemic discrimination, marginalization and inequalities and gain/regain empowerment. Critics argue that identity politics are divisive and polarizing, giving rise to tribalism.
2. NeoCon - these are the new conservatives. They represent the global elite who aim for a new world order where they exercise control and dominance. To achieve this, they export war, fund the expansion of NATO, weaponize technology, create division and fragmentation in society, strong-arm heads of state to subscribe to the UN mandate (which is now essentially controlled by the NeoCons). Examples of these people would be all the US presidents after Ronald Reagan and before Donald Trump.
3. RetCon - stands for retroactive continuity. This is a form of storytelling where you alter the old narrative and put a revision to fit your agenda. This could be diametrically opposed to the original narrative. When you rewrite history, that's a RetCon. A good example is the presidency of the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr. This was characterized by plunder of the Philippine treasury, incarceration of all political opponents and crony capitalism. When his son, BongBong Marcos ran for president, his social media machinery RetConned his late father's presidency as the Golden Years of the country's history. This worked. The young people who weren't born then believed the story. BongBong won the presidency.
4. Steelmanning - this is when you use an opponent's strongest arguments to have them better represented and to express that you understand where they are coming from. This doesn't mean you agree or support them. You're still out to destroy them but citing their strongest arguments before destroying them.
5. Strawmanning - the opposite of steelmanning, this is when you want to destroy someone by using his weakest argument against him.
6. Gaslighting - it's a form of manipulation when you intentionally confuse someone by making him doubt his perception of reality. You can create confusion by denying events, twisting facts, altering what happened, and implying the other person is over-sensitive, over-reacting or paranoid. This causes the victim to have a low self-esteem and question their memory and judgement and become reliant on the deceiver. An example is when a wife sees her husband with another woman. She confronts him at home. He denies it and rebuts that she's making things up, hallucinating and being insecure. He keeps repeating this until the wife begins to think maybe it's her, not him.
7. Virtue signaling - this is a ploy when you gain social credit by visibly promoting moral correctness for others to see but you don't really practice or believe it. One example is when someone invokes the Lord after every sentence (thereby presenting himself as religious and spiritual), but he doesn't pay his debts, underpays his employees, uses his philantrophy as a tax-leverage and mudslings by gossiping.
8. Deep fake - this is now part of the mainstream. Deep fake applies to altered digital photo or video that renders it highly realistic, being passed on as real. Deep fake can show a presidential candidate in a compromising sexual episode that never happened. An example is when Trump is shown in a video tap dancing - he can't dance.
9. Metaverse - Facebook popularized this world meaning an ecosystem merging the physical and the digital world, both virtual and augmented. It may include NFTs that are pure digital tokens but we can trade them for real money.
10. NFT - stands for non fungible tokens, this is a unique digital asset (could be art, music or video) that exists in the blockchain and central to ownership. People can trade NFTs with real money.
11. Doomscrolling - this means scrolling down indefinitely on social media even though it causes increasing anxiety. People who are glued to social media are sitting ducks for this.
12. Deplatforming - this happens when someone is denied use of his social media for his opinion, action or voice. This usually happens when the person goes counter to the narrative of mainstream media. Example: if you say Covid was a planned pandemic to control public behavior and exercise extreme boundaries to which the public can be coerced, you will be deplatformed. If you make your livelihood as a YouTuber, then you lose your income. This is similar to cancel culture - stay in lane or be canceled or deplatformed.
13. Echo chamber - this is the vicious loop when you are only fed or interact with narratives consistent with your worldview. The social media algorithm gives you what you want and none of the counter narratives. This further reinforces your thinking - you would have no idea how far you've gone into the deep end. Example: you belief in conspiracies so all that's fed in your social media are conspiracy theories. You continue to believe this until you think the whole world order is rigged and that you're being gamed.
14. Cancel culture - this is mob-thinking where a noisy and aggressive minority cancels or withdraws support from a public figure, company or even a private individual for any perceived wrong-doing, even if it's just non-political correctness. Social media is used to spread this kind of hate and public shaming. The victim loses his job, his friends and his social standing. What you tweeted 10 years ago, if no longer popular today, can be used to get you canceled.
15. Woke - it's a way of thinking used in the black community to describe racial inequality in the US. This word has radically evolved to the extremes of any kind of perceived social injustice. This gave rise to gender identity, variable pronouns, and weaponizing a virtue to launch a vitriolics attack. An extreme example is a biological man who now chooses to be a legal woman (with no sex-change operation). He can now participate in an all-woman MMA and beat the living daylights of a biological woman. And if you call this man his former man-name, you go to jail.
16. Cognitive dissonance - a feeling of discomfort when a person firmly believes in 2 ideas that are conflicting. e.g. a US patriot and the collapse of Building 7. He believes his country is all good and benevolent. But Building 7 was never hit by a plane and was not on fire. Still, it collapsed in a free-fall rate, same as the Twin Towers. This suggests that 9/11 was an inside job and not a terrorist attack
17. Halo-effect - it's a cognitive bias where our first impression of someone gives us a positive bias on everything else about this person. Or our overall impression of a company gives us a positive bias on all the products it releases. Of course, this is not always correct. e.g. an attractive person is deemed talented and intelligent and usually goes higher up in the ladder
18. Confirmation bias - when one looks for, interprets or remembers any information that supports his bias or currently-held beliefs. You essentially abandon critical thinking and objectivity e.g. You support Trump, so you look for information that supports your belief that he is the right guy to be president. This bias has a tendency to put you in an echo chamber
19. Impostor syndrome - it's an internal feeling where one feels that he is not as competent as the public perceives of him. He lives in fear that one day, he might be exposed as a fraud
20. FOMO (fear of missing out) - because people post 'great things' in social media, FOMO is a feeling of anxiety that you're not included in the fun or excluded from what is happening
21. Toxic positivity - when one pressures others to remain positive, often suppressing real and negative emotions hiding in plain sight e.g. a friend was dumped by the boyfriend. She is distraught and you say, "There is a deep intelligence at play here. Things happen for a reason." Something better could be, "Hey, if you wanna talk, beer's on me."
22. Quiet quitting - in the workplace, this is when workers do the barest minimum of what's expected of them. This is not just being lazy, but could be frustration. They put a clear boundary from being exploited or burning out. It's their way of expressing a work/life balance
23. YOLO (you only live once) - live in the moment and act on your excitement because tomorrow, you may be dead and that's it - end of story
24. Ghosting - when someone suddenly stops replying without any explanation. This is common in the dating scene. e.g. after giving me her contact info, she ghosted me
25. Mansplaining - often discussed in feminine circles when men explain things to a woman in a somewhat condescending way, implying she's not that knowledgeable. The issue is genderized
26. Adulting - often used by younger people to refer to adult stuff like paying bills and doing the groceries
27. Digital detox - weening away from electronic gadgets, social media and digital information to give the mind a break and re-connect with the real world
28. Side hustle - a modern word for sideline, usually to freelance over and above the main work. This could mean a side project or a start up
29. Hustle culture - it's not about being a hustler, but simply being immersed in a high pressure culture that is active, busy, grinding non-stop and demanding - all in the name of success. Often, it is at the expense of personal time and well-being
30. Clapback - sharp, witty and sarcastic response to criticism, usually played out in social media
31. Stan - a character in Eminem's song. This is a rabid fan. e.g. I stan Joe Rogan.

Ending Thoughts
This period in human history (short of a civil war) is perhaps one of the most contentious (that, or I'm simply in my echo chamber) and polarizing. Because of the rapid shifts in cultural norms and conventions, language is evolving fast to keep up with current narratives. I'm sure there will be more new words to come out of this Zeitgeist.

--- Gigit (TheLoneRider)
YOGA by Gigit | Learn English | Travel like a Nomad | Donation Bank

Next story:

US Presidential Election

(October 8, 2024) Lately, I had been listening to podcasts by great personalities and brilliant minds that have captured the public domain. With the US presidential elections less than 2 months away, their talks have all been funneled on the 'where we are' and 'what ifs' of the outcome. It seems like this is no ordinary election - more like existential Showdown at OK Corral where not only the US, geopolitics, the world and lives hang in the balance. Some even claim that this could be the last democratic election that is to take place in the US - freedom vs tyranny...more »»

Generations: Baby Boomers to Gen Alpha

(November 4, 2024) I'm a Baby Boomer. With so many generational names being thrown around describing how they function and shape society, I needed a clearer map of this Peoplescape. I asked AI and referred to other podcasts....more »»

»» back to Learning
»» back to Homepage

ARCHIVE 2024: JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC

1970 | 1973 | 1975 | 1976 | 1979 | 1981 | 1996 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ALL BLOGS