Speak The Language

I am not talking to you! I am talking to you! Do you understand what points I am making? Then I am talking to you! Do you not understand what I’m saying? Then I am not speaking your language. If you would like to understand me, you can learn my language, or I can speak to you in yours.

It is not the first time in America’s history that we are faced with multiple, fractious parties within the supposed two party system. America is a large place, with many factions, factions within factions, that have little to do with conspiracy and everything to do with region. Who is fighting right now? People who share a culture with people who share a culture. People who share a lifestyle with people who share a lifestyle. People are fighting with people who speak a completely different language. 

Imagine having a conversation of nuance and depth with someone who hasn’t read the books that taught you about nuance and depth. I have had those conversations, I have had many of those conversations. I have had them with a breadth of people, about a breadth of topics. 

In most situations, it’s difficult to divorce one’s sense of overall morality from the present from the gut. The present is now and the part of our brain wired to react immediately is not wired to react with depth or nuance. People who are overexposed, people who’s defenses are down because they are emotionally overloaded, these are the people that you cannot talk to with a well thought out essay about the possibilities of generational change. What do they hear from you? They haven’t read this line in this paragraph. It’s too far down. 

When I am writing to an audience, I will write directly to that audience in the language they understand. When I speak hyperbolically, when I shout and yell at you, you are overwhelmed emotionally. But I am not speaking to you when I do this. I am speaking to people who are already overwhelmed emotionally. I am not speaking to you in this way because you are not interested in learning this way, nor in being spoken to with such disrespect. If I would like to speak to you, I will treat you as a peer, and as someone who has a viewpoint that needs listening to. Did you read that sentence? 

Did you read it the first time, or did you read it after you read this sentence?

Language is not necessarily words, as you and I are both aware, but this is attempting to put that knowledge into practice. When you read, “blah blah blah explosions” you hear a wild, bearded man shouting, covered in twigs and starving. But many people hear me, a person who looks like them, who talks like them, who cares as hard about other people as they do, and hear their language being spoken. They hear me saying “DO!” 

I promise you, the people you fear for their violent tendencies do not have violent tendencies because they are doing great! I promise you, you are probably not doing that great either! All of us are responding to this generational trauma in ways that none of us can control, nor predict. We are all struggling with the aftereffects of a pandemic.

To what audience are you speaking? Speak to them in their language and they will understand, right? That’s why when someone like Jonathan Chait types “addled Qanon type” to describe someone who correctly predicted that Trump would evade consequences for his actions, as opposed to say, “Jordan”, I don’t take offense. In fact, I think he’s probably described me correctly.

I speak the language.