Comments by "Persona" (@ArawnOfAnnwn) on "Why has St. Louis become the most dangerous city in the USA? - VisualPolitik EN" video.

  1.  Robert Maxwell  African Americans. He's just trying to avoid saying it himself so he can avoid being called out for being racist.
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  2. I never understood why people care so much about pronunciation when they fully well understand what's being said. Language is a method of communication. Your pronunciation, spelling and grammar hangups are just that. If you can easily make out what's being said, those 'issues' are meaningless.
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  3. ​ @ryanchrisgomez  You could apply that argument to anything. Insisting on people always prefacing the name of the city with, say, 'wonderful' or 'amazing' could also be a sign of 'respect', regardless of how the speaker feels about it. Expecting an acknowledgement of some cultural landmark or historical curiosity whenever the city is brought up could be a sign of 'respect'. Demanding that the speaker bows in obeisance whenever daring to mention the name of the holy patch of land, or even substitutes the name of the megalopolitan for a title instead, could be a sign of 'respect'. 'Respect' is a subjective phenomenon, and therefore admits anything. A lot can be demanded in the name of 'politeness'. That is why we have a proverb for respect - 'respect is earned, not given'. If the speaker feels like giving you respect, they'll give it voluntarily. You or your city have no right to receiving it.
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  4. ​ @ryanchrisgomez  "the straw man argument you seem to be constructing that I’m somehow mandating respect from people." - fair enough. You may not have been insisting on it, though I've come across some other comments here that are quite demanding. So long as it is merely a request, I'm fine with that. "Moreover, pronunciation does serve a very practical function where both semantics and pragmatics are concerned (see: minimal pairs)." - Minimal pairs, and any other such misunderstanding, would fall under the purview of semantic failure, which I already accepted. I don't see much evidence that many people have failed to understand what's being talked about here though, especially since it's also mentioned in written form. Like I said, language is a means of communication. I don't dispute the value of pronunciation, grammar or spelling insofar as they serve that goal (unsurprisingly, most of the popular meme examples for the importance of spelling or grammar that people share on social media involve resultant misunderstandings), simply when taken well beyond that function to be of value in and of themselves. The typical argument given for this is that language also conveys impressions and mediates relationships, which I find shallow and elitist (not traits I would care to cater to). Indeed a fair amount of the cultural elements of language that you may have in mind are similarly questionable i.e. a result of traits that we should be trying to overcome, not indulge. Anyway, that doesn't seem to be the case here - indeed even the comments pointing out the pronunciation issue themselves are making it clear that the presenter was understood, as they're hardly expressing confusion, but rather indignation. Cheers!
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  5.  Tuy Randolph  Depends what you mean by "true". Correlation versus causation and all that. If you can establish causation, then you can say it's true.
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  6. I never understood why people care so much about pronunciation when they fully well understand what's being said. Language is a method of communication. Your pronunciation, spelling and grammar hangups are just that. If you can easily make out what's being said, those 'issues' are meaningless.
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  7.  Tuy Randolph  Just saying "dozens of mass shootings every weak across the country" doesn't establish causation, sorry. Also you might want to look into what proportion of those are done by which people, instead of just assuming it. I suggest looking into taking a Research Methods course. There's plenty available online. :)
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  8.  Tuy Randolph  "It doesn't impress anyone bud" - #citationneeded :)
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  9.  Tuy Randolph  I posed to you some questions, you haven't answered them. And have made more comments than me while not doing so. Projection much? :)
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  10.  Tuy Randolph  I'll consider contributing when you do. You have so far failed to do so, save in sheer quantity of verbiage. I know the feeble of mind often confuse quantity with quality, but of course that wouldn't describe you now, would it? So, you got that causation thing I asked for yet? :)
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  11.  Tuy Randolph  Oh and thanks for assuming my gender. :) :) :)
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  12.  Tuy Randolph  I like how you assumed I was trying to be. :)
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