Tangled in Semantics

Isaac Saul from Tangle posted about some changes happening with the publication, specifically around the language that will be used. The writers and editors at Tangle have always strived to keep a balanced approach to the news. However, they’ve noticed that the words being used in stories tend to indicate bias to some readers.

One reason why, I believe (and have been told by those unsubscribing), has to do with the daily struggle of our language choices. Many readers on both the left and right have unsubscribed or written in angrily, not because of what we were saying, but how we were saying it. Whether it is calling cannabis “marijuana” (“that’s racist”) or referring to a trans person by their preferred pronouns (“that’s ceding the argument”), those readers didn’t even make it to the opposing arguments because they couldn’t get past the editorial decisions we were making on the way.

The post goes on to clarify some of the wording choices that they will make, going forward, and why they are making those choices. It shows how reactive we have gotten (and I definitely indict myself in this generalization) that even the smallest choices in language are construed to be conscious decisions taking sides on a particular issue.

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