E136. John McWhorter Wants Us To Get Brave

John McWhorter, author of Nine Nasty Words: English In The Gutter - Then, Now and Forever , sits down for a fascinating and fun conversation with Bridget. They discuss the appeal of swear words, the evolution of language, the rise of "like" and "literally," the arc of curse words from blasphemy, to the body, to slurs, and evaluate Critical Race Theory from both sides of the argument. They examine the difference between teaching people to think and telling them what to think, how the term "racist" is now being used as a bludgeon to enforce a kind of ideological lockstep, why the victimization mindset has become so popular, share their stories of their first curse words, and discuss why you can't get what you want by calling people white supremacists on Twitter. Check out John's writing at johnmcwhorter.substack.com.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.phetasy.com/subscribe Support the show