The lovely Donald has done it again. Yes, he has thrown my thought processes again. One could say that I can do nothing about the chaos that man seeks to cause. As a result, there is no point in worrying my not so pretty, little head about it. I mean, it could only start WW3! For the record and because this is a diary, President Trump has stopped all military aid to Ukraine and put significant tariffs in place, with immediate effect, for Canada, Mexico and China.
As I reflect on the actions of the Trumpinator, the way I have perceived people reacting to me recently has made me think about my views of the world and how I say things. So, here I am worrying about being careful with my language and about ensuring I keep an open mind to different view points, and then we have The Donald. What a role model! And what about his Vice President? An Australian politician was asked to complete the following sentence:
‘JD Vance is a……’
He answered (and I quote directly) ‘Knob’ (or is Nob?)
The Australians have a lovely way with words. They are direct, shall we say. Apparently the said politician has now withdrawn the comment and apologised. Although I am not sure he will be winning awards for diplomacy using this language, you can see (after watching Vance in the meeting with Zalensky) how the Australian fella had reached his conclusion, even if you don’t agree with him (and I suspect many do). Should he have to apologise? Answers on a postcard (or perhaps in the comments below).
Back in Nobodyland, I am fretting about upsetting younger people. Finding myself lurking in a forum in which included some Gen Z folk, I commented on the fact that, I felt spelling correctly was an important skill for a Copy Writer’.
Knowing what a Copy Writer does is perhaps important at this point – they WRITE stuff which is then put out in public to persuade them to either do or buy something. They WRITE newsletters, website WORDS, adverts (the WORDS bits), press releases, blogs, advert scripts etc.
It seems that my view that writing stuff for public consumption, that is reasonably easy to read, is an unreasonable standard for an employer to seek. In fact, it appears I am discriminating against people who don’t spell well and those with dyslexia. Yes, I know that AI tools can help those who have trouble with putting letters in the right order – ‘im indoors, as someone with dyslexia, is a fan. I think it is brilliant, I use these things too (spell checkers, editing tools etc). However, as a result of the reaction I got when I voiced my view (from an employers perspective), I have to question myself as to whether I am heading into the world of being a dinosaur?
For the record (for the second time today), I think anyone should have a go at anything they want to. I am the first to encourage people to be curious and learn new things. But I also ask the question, should I be vilified for having such wild views about writers being paid to write, having at least a good understanding of words (whether they can spell all of them or not) and sentence structure. I believe it is important for the writer to know what is vaguely correct in order for them to ask AI the right prompts. How do you know the AI tools have the right (write, rite) answer if you don’t have the basics? You know, like using a calculator to add numbers together in the right way.
I will away to ponder.
Note to readers:
- I, in no way claim to be the world’s best speller or grammar queen. I am still a work in progress
- I have currently given up employing people until I can have a good talking to myself.
- Other than anything embedded in Substack, no AI was used in the writing of this diary today. It did, however, produce the picture.