Words Under Threat
My instinctive reaction to the broad, undifferentiated cuts to federal departments and programs was skepticism and distress. Would the cuts affect the cleanliness of our air and water, the safety…
Keeping Our Word in the Face of Meta’s Changes
When Elon Musk took over Twitter, he reinstated accounts of people who frequently had plied misinformation on the site, and he seemed unconcerned about the platform’s takeover by people with…
Fed Up with Lies
As flood waters swirled around people’s homes and yards along with spiraling rumors and disinformation about emergency rescue services, I became fed up — fed up with the lies that…
Dignity or Contempt? How One Simple Tool Could Transform America’s Dialogue
After two assassination attempts against former President Trump and unease in Springfield, Ohio, after false accusations that immigrants there were eating pets, it’s the right time to think about toning…
The Death of Truth
The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.” — George Orwell Starting on May 30, Planet Word is launching the first…
Losing Iowa
I’m from Iowa originally, and being a smallish, quiet state, there was never much to brag about — no professional sports teams, no especially big cities, no astounding geological spectacles…