The Mass Extinction No One Is Talking About

Robert Scheer / Truthdig Jun 28, 2019 Dialects are dying out at an alarming rate, along with the worldviews they contain. This is no accident, according to artist Lena Herzog. Dig deeper ( 24 Min. Read )

From Identity Politics to Academic Masturbation

Julian Vigo / Truthdig Mar 28, 2018 How did we arrive at this moment where university learning means parroting incoherent political rhetoric? Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Challenging Trump’s Language of Fascism

Henry Giroux / Truthout Jan 10, 2018 With the advent of the Trump presidency, language is undergoing a shift in the United States: It now treats dissent, critical media and scientific evidence as a species of "fake news." Dig deeper ( 19 Min. Read )

Sean Spicer Reaches Orwellian Levels of ‘Duckspeak’ With His News Briefings

Todd Gitlin / Truthdig Jun 3, 2017 The vocabulary and speaking style of Donald Trump's press secretary resembles a form of speech from George Orwell's "1984." Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

America the Illiterate

Chris Hedges / Truthdig Sep 1, 2016 The change from a print-based to an image-based society has transformed our nation. All the traditional tools of democracies—including dispassionate scientific and historical truth, facts, news and rational debate—are useless instruments in a world that lacks the capacity to use them. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

‘Díselo Ahora’: Why a Sentence Spoken in Spanish Matters

Victoria Livingstone / Truthdig Feb 21, 2016 The recent sparring in Spanish between GOP presidential rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz offers a glimpse into Americans’ shifting and sometimes conflicted views on heritage and language use in the U.S. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

VIDEO: Chris Hedges and John Ralston Saul Discuss Neoliberalism, False Populism and Donald Trump

Staff / Truthdig Oct 27, 2015 “I think that the word 'ideology' has to be used very carefully But when people come forward with rather simplistic truths -- you already know you’re in trouble when they say they’ve got the truth -- and they say: 'This is what must happen This is how things work This is what dominates society' That’s an ideology"“I think that the word 'ideology' has to be used very carefully'". Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

The U.S. Is Now the World’s Second-Largest Spanish-Speaking Country

Roisin Davis / Truthdig Jun 30, 2015 The United States now has 41 million native Spanish speakers and 11 million people who are bilingual. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

‘Normal Barbie’ With Zits, Bruises and Stretch Marks Will Soon Be on the Market

Staff / Truthdig Nov 24, 2014 You can say goodbye to all your old disproportionate Barbies thanks to designer Nickolay Lamm's new doll; Obama may have set a precedent for a conservative president with his executive orders; meanwhile, studies show infants recognize the language they hear when born even after years of no longer speaking it. These discoveries and more after the jump. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Secret Service Seeks to Automate Social Media Message Evaluation

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Jun 16, 2014 To help it judge whether to take specific threats online seriously, the U.S. Secret Service has offered a contract for analytics software that can be used "to detect sarcasm and false positives" on Twitter and other social media. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Male Speech Patterns Are Changing

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Dec 13, 2013 "Uptalk," the habit of increasing the pitch of one's voice at the end of sentences, is on the rise among California males, new research shows. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Google’s Strange Discomfort With Sexuality

Staff / Truthdig Dec 3, 2013 The list of words banned from the latest Android operating system is as baffling as it is odd. Apparently, the Internet giant is not OK with words like "preggers" and "uterus" but it also has something against "LSAT." What gives, Google? Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )