I just noticed that when people debate sensitive topics, they like to use big words. I almost never use big words in real life, and neither to Jeff or Anna (as far as I can tell having only talked her 5 or 6 times). But it's not just us. Everyone does. I think that, at a subconscious level, we think it makes us sound more convincing. Maybe we hope that the other person won't be able to understand bigger words. Maybe we hope that they will spend time at dictionary.com looking up the words: sophist, disingenuous, bling bling, semiotics and pfft. The word pfft is an Onomatopoeia, so don't bother looking it up. Maybe they will forget their argument because they are in awe of your stupendous vocabulary. Somehow I doubt it.
What I really think is that it helps defeat the desire to resort to name calling and using hurtful derogatory words. You may have read an earlier post of mine where I posted a clip of an email from the girl who was furious. I'll say again that the hurtful derogatory words don't increase the weight of your argument. They make you look stupid.
-Gary Milner Internet Dictionary
ps. I put the link to James' blog because I think he is a good writer, not because I agree with everything he says.
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