Semantics Wars: How Language Shapes the World We See

Fascism arises when we refuse to look at one thing in two different ways.

A friend recently used the word “flimsy” in a somewhat unusual context, and I asked: “What do you mean by “flimsy”? He answered: “Well, the word means what it sounds like — ‘flimsy.’ Don’t you hear how it sounds?”

I said, “I can’t always tell the meaning of an English word by how it sounds. English is not my native language.” “Oh, well,” he answered, “I …