re: Diversity: Coming face-to-face with it in Academia

quote:

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• "When everything is potentially offensive, all communication must be as indirect as possible, and the result is that clear communication using direct and precise language becomes impossible."

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John McWhorter writes about this as 'softening of language.'
Example: When you've been talking on the phone with a friend and need to end it, you say: 'Well, lemme let ya go now...'
What you really mean is 'I need to hang up.'

Softening has always existed to a certain degree. But today it's going to extremes.