Stop Dumbing Down People

Stop Dumbing Down People January 1, 2025

Spread these ideas liberally (AKA repeat after me)

Summary

Podcast links: Substack, YouTube. Also on Spotify and Apple podcasts.

I really dislike taking down the Christmas decorations after New Years. It’s such a sparkly, bright period filled with hope and goodwill. Our house looks barren of sparkle just as does our reality. We’re back to normal, and normal leaves a lot to be desired. We need to solve problems that are causing endless chaos and misery.

Entering 2025, a quarter of the way through this century, we’re still in deep trouble that is getting deeper by the minute. We can’t find ways to live together peacefully. People lack the tools to solve their situations, become hopeless, enraged, and strike out at others, which we define as terrorism. Terrorists are just like other mass shooters or killers in what drives them.

While religion and spirituality, that many ignore, may teach us to have divine love, compassion, tolerance, mercy, and forgiveness for each other, surprisingly this most important concept ignores other very important factors. The answer begins with understanding and improving communications.

This may sound trite, as if communications is the key to all problems, but it is foundational to solving them, along with an attitude of love.

Briefly in this summary, before doing a deep dive, we need to understand robbing people of words deprives them of the ability to think. That’s not a little thing. How this works is not intuitive, so I also will go in depth about how this works.

Word salad image of buzzwords in various fields created and copyright © by Dorian Scott Cole.
Word salad image of buzzwords in various fields created and copyright © by Dorian Scott Cole.

You no longer have permission to use these word salad words. Well, they made a trademark of PB and J’s long form, peanut butter and jelly, so why can’t I copyright all these words and take them out of usage. Don’t reply. I already know why. 🙂

Bible References

Our words reveal who we truly are, deceptive or good:

“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” – Matthew 12:34

Be honest and clear in communications:

“But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”
Matthew 5:37

We are held accountable for what we say and how it affects others:

“For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Matthew 12:36-37

Practical implications of Jesus’ teachings on communication:

  • Speak with integrity: Practice honesty and transparency in your interactions.
  • Think before you speak: Consider the impact of your words before you utter them.
  • Focus on building up others: Use your words to encourage and uplift others.
  • Avoid gossip and negativity: Speak kindly and respectfully about others.
  • Practice active listening: Pay attention to what others are saying and show genuine interest.
  • Be mindful of your tone and body language: Communicate with empathy and respect.
  • By following Jesus’ example of communication, we can use our words to build relationships, spread love, and make a positive impact on the world around us.

Buzzwords

Buzzwords, as shown in the image, are words that may have meaning to people in certain professions, but have very specific meanings and either mystify the public or are picked up by the public and used out of context.

I personally don’t use many terms used in medicine and psychology, even though I worked in both fields, because I may not know the full scope of the word and this can be misleading. For example, I may feel lethargic, but the word has a much stronger meaning in the medical field. And I don’t label people narcissists because I don’t do diagnostics and it’s complicated.

I put LARPing into the religion category for amusement. Many religious people will have no idea what it means, so this is instructive. I use many of the terms in the word salad image, but only when people will fully understand.

Gaslighting is not an official DSM term, but is widely used by the public and is in the APA Dictionary of Psychology. I know people who gaslight. If gaslighting meant street lamps, we would have enough to light the world.

We have reason to celebrate our positive accomplishments

Not to be a downer, and last week’s column was about celebrating our accomplishments.

I celebrate Syria’s freedom. A long war against a powerful dictator has reached a conclusion that made all people free. If they can peacefully resolve things with the endless armed militia groups that have vastly different goals, and resolve things peacefully with the Kurds, they can have a democracy inclusive of all ethnic groups, that thrives. I’m cheering for them.

We have reason to despair

Some things really bother me. We woke up on New Years Day to another mass killing by truck in New Orleans. Someone went around barriers and killed at least ten people in the wee hours of 2025 in New Orleans as they celebrated the new year.

We don’t know the motive at this moment. People on Internet hate forums and in hate groups stir people up endlessly so they only seek a resolution. The inability to resolve problems leads to frustration, then hopelessness, then anger, then lashing out to make a statement. It’s an old story that we don’t take to heart, we just call on law enforcement to squash problems that are growing like grains of sand.

Hate and resistance in the US and many other countries is boiling. The problems we’ve had in the 20th Century are being dragged through the 21st Century, allowed them to fester and boil over. Outrage is endless by people who are isolated, by people damaged by the systems, by people who hate others, and by people who don’t get their way.

I’ve watched the problems in the Middle East for over 60 years. At one point they could have been resolved with a two-state solution, but neither party could ratify agreements because of internal resistance. So the animosity and violence only festers and gets worse.

Israel could look to Syria as an example. Not that bloodshed is an answer. It isn’t. But with a dictator out of the way, they are bringing others together. My view of Israel has changed dramatically. A two-state solution is not a solution, but a recipe for endless conflict. Years of mistreatment and animosity have created a Gordian Knot of problems that can’t be untangled by a simple dividing line, just as apartheid and segregation weren’t solutions. Respect has to be developed in democratic forums where people are equal.

Yes, rebels intent on destroying the state of Israel are a horrible thing. But Israel can’t treat people inhumanely like Sadam Hussein, Putin, and other dictators do and expect people to call it godly and just, and accept it. Booting people off their land, as they have done since 1950, with no right of return (which is an international law), can’t be tolerated.

Palestine and Israel must have a democracy for the entire land that treats all people the same, with the same rights to land ownership, and to be represented and treated equally.

An example of the communication problem and solution

My daughter works as a speech pathologist. I kid her that as a pathologist she analyzes dead speech. She works primarily in the school system. Most of the young adults sent to her have behavior problems that start with speech, and it’s causing havoc in most school systems.

She found that too many young adults are unable to recognize and interpret facial expressions and linguistic expressions. They misinterpret the meaning of what others say and the result is misbehavior, violence, and poor grades.

Why is this a problem?

For over a century, studies have repeatedly shown that body language, including facial expressions, are 95% of the “effectiveness” of communications. Many actors know this and focus on it. Lack of this ability is why some actors are going to stay mediocre. It’s why many speakers and leaders will never be anything more than mediocre. It’s one reason why conflict erupts on the streets and in workplaces.

She does three things to help the students. She helps them recognize and interpret facial expressions, gives them the tools to deal with conflict, and holds them accountable to better deal with these situations.

The result is a much calmer school environment. The student stops being a problem and grades go up.

I wish we did this with everyone. But people tend to think they are just fine and justified in what they do, and do what they want without giving it another thought.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates

Communication flaws promote misunderstanding, chaos, violence, and impede personal development.

People are needed to help others understand and hold them accountable

We need people who are willing to stand up and make necessary changes to resolve these endless disputes. New generations are doing this at around 32%.

For example, we need to take the focus off debate in which there is only one winner, and put it on discussion in which we understand each other and works toward a resolution which is win-win. Win-win means everyone wins.

We need people who are effective communicators to train others. It helps to understand social psychology which is about attitude formation and change.

We need people who can help others understand how to communicate.

We need people who can help others resolve disputes.

We need people who can hold others accountable for reaching for understanding and using the right tools to resolve disputes.

End summary

Deep dive

Communications applies to everything

From the pulpit to Sunday school classes, to the people we talk with every day in schools, politics, and other forums, we don’t communicate well. It’s still a challenge for me.

People in religion or marketing have their own vocabulary or buzzwords. These words are mystifying to others who have no point of reference or context for understanding them. Most of these words should just go away or be replaced with words others can understand.

I believe there are many words that come from the first century that we should translate into more understandable language. Understandable language is different from simply using words longer than four letters or avoiding those longer than eight.

Words have much more powerful than we think. There are many words that are necessary for understanding our world today. For example, many emotions can be expressed by words that have more than four letters. If we use those words to define the way we feel, others will begin to understand them from context. It can help people understand and deal with their feelings.

135 Words That Express Feelings.

I communicate with many people. I’m not the smartest, and I’m not the least. But my life’s work is communication, and I communicate without reservation or judgment with both the smartest and those with limited vocabularies and understanding.

I communicate spiritual ideas, religion, technology, writing, and social psychology. I understand what affects communication and how to work around obstacles. One of the primary obstacles I see is the conventional wisdom of trying to communicate at the lowest common denominator, which is a 6th to 8th-grade reading level.

This vocabulary is not effective communication. We don’t realize when we use it that we’re dumbing people down when we should be lifting them up. We’re affecting people’s ability to think. That’s right; we’re limiting people’s ability to think.

Let me explain the science.

Thinking without words is simply instinct

The primary thing that separates us from animals is a collection of genetic codes that give us a much larger language center and the physical abilities to use it. The human brain has several types of cells that animals don’t, and we don’t even know exactly what some of those cells do.

A Radiolabs broadcast informed part of this article. An article I wrote on my Visual Writer website (about writing) was also used as a reference, as well as many of my articles on Our Times Today and Tomorrow on Substack where I did a series that explored this in great depth, from basic brain anatomy to beyond our consciousness.

This larger language area of the brain, which includes the prefrontal cortex and other parts of the brain, makes it possible for us to “think.” Of course, animals can think and communicate as much as they need to for survival, and they can do a certain amount of problem-solving type thinking, and some even have rudimentary communication abilities. But at the age of 3 years, animal progress stops even though humans intervene in their language to help them communicate.

What humans can do and what animals can do is a difference of an ocean apart. People can “think.” Well, at least they have the choice. How necessary is language to thought? In isolation, we would be much like the animals in our ability to think. We would not be able to develop language. For example, one woman lost her language abilities due to a stroke but recovered. She said that during her non-language period, she was just “connected” to the universe but unable to have thoughts. It was a pleasant enough experience, but given an either/or choice, she didn’t necessarily prefer the “connected to everything” state.

That connectedness is also expressed by people during meditation, during experiences with certain drugs (mostly illegal or controlled substances), and during near-death experiences. Interrupting neural pathways seems to remove the onslaught of thoughts that we have at all times and brings about that feeling of just experiencing the universe without deliberating on it from different perspectives. It is language that assists the process of individuation, helping us become individuals separate from the group even though we belong to the group. We understand ourselves as separate from others.

Individuation is dependent on the narratives (stories) of our lives. We are the stories we create, and we become the stories that we see ourselves living. Without language, there is no story. The past is not interpreted, and the future has no meaning except existence.

Deaf impact on language development

The experience of a deaf school in Nicaragua confirms the reality of language being principal to the development of thinking. Before the 1970s, there were no deaf schools in Nicaragua. The deaf lived in isolation from other deaf people, and to make their needs known, they simply mimicked the actions of others. Their thinking was limited to behaviors similar to animal behavior.

Discussions with deaf people who developed language late indicate that not having language is a time of darkness and non-thinking, to which they would not want to return. In 1970, several deaf people were brought together in a school. An interesting thing happened: they developed their own rich sign language. Students reveal that with the advent of developing language, they developed the ability to think.

Testing was conducted with the students to understand this mechanism. Years later, testing was performed on earlier and current students. The earlier students could not perform as well on tests that required more advanced thinking compared to the newer students.

Then, another interesting thing happened. The earlier students were mixed with the current students, aged 8 or 9, and the earlier students then learned the advancements in their language.

Guess what? The older group performed better on tests that required advanced thinking.

How does language work?

When I say the words “recidivism rate” to you, what does it conjure up in your mind? I said it once to a person who then asked me what it meant. Then he said I had opened up a new way of thinking about a subject for him.

Recidivism means those who reoffend and return to prison after being released. It can be used as a measure of how well rehabilitation works. A simple enough idea, but if you’ve never heard the word before in context, it means nothing.

If you mention the word radio, it means different things to different people. It could mean an announcer, an appliance, enjoying music and news, or repair work. To me, it means all four because I’ve had those deep experiences.

Words have no inherent meaning. They aren’t instinctual things that come stored in our brains, or things that magically appear when we need them, complete with meaning. Words are created by people to represent something. They’re symbols. (See Semiotics.) But none of us understands the symbol in exactly the same way. We derive a lot of our meaning from context, definitions, and especially from experience.

See semiotics. I wrote original papers on visual semiotics in movies. Visual semiotics is now a thing. My work: Understanding and Using Symbols, by Dorian Scott Cole

Brain science and language

Research by cognitive researcher Steven Harnad showed the areas of the brain that are active during different types of thinking. The prefrontal cortex is primarily responsible for thought processing, especially for thoughts that are concrete. Abstract thought is processed in a different area of the brain. The rostral prefrontal cortex (RPFC) is a subregion of the prefrontal cortex that plays a key role in abstract thought, but not in other types of thought.

Language allows us to label and categorize abstract concepts, making them easier to understand and manipulate. For example, the word “justice” represents a complex idea that can be discussed and analyzed through language.

Without language, we are not only reduced to animal instincts and lack an individual perspective; we are unable to engage in higher-level and abstract thinking. Language is an innate drive in humans, and its development is essential for the advancement of higher-level thinking. To move beyond survival reactions and problem-solving, people require language to develop higher-level thought.

Language is crucial for metacognition, which is the ability to think about one’s own thoughts and reasoning. By using language to reflect on our thought processes, we can better understand and articulate our abstract ideas.

Over a period of time, through the usage of the word, it becomes more meaningful in our brains. This is experiential and is a product of felt meaning. Experience anchors the word and its meaning in our brains.

Emotion plays a major role. The more emotionally laden the experience, the more it becomes anchored in our brain. At times this can be too much, as in traumatic experiences. Beta blocker medications lower this sensitivity and are sometimes used to help people get over traumatic experiences directly after having them.

Cognitive researcher Steven Harnad and psychiatric researcher Eugene Gendlin both explored felt meaning and how language becomes situated in our brains.

The process is, nodes develop in our brains representing categories, and as we add more information, the category becomes larger and stronger as a network that branches out to other things. Categories break off into other categories when they are stretched too far by disparate objects.

When we think, we think in words that represent information. No words, no representation.

Communicating with words

What troubles me about dumbing down is a couple of things. One, we don’t give people the words they need to think, and two, we tend to “dumb down” communications for the lowest common denominator. It is a downward spiral.

I have long noted in discussions with others that far too many people don’t think; they simply react based on emotion. As someone who uses social psychology (attitude change), I understand that people react from the depth of their experience, not logic. Logic means we look at our reaction and think about it, then maybe change it.

Not to get deeply into the dynamics of attitude, but our behavior is known to be controlled primarily by emotion and only weakly by what we “know.”

This can change as people mature and begin to alter their behavior to match what they know. For example, young children want something, so they take it. Later, they learn that stealing has consequences, and even later, they internalize the value that stealing is simply wrong because of the harm it does. Eventually, their behavior conforms to the internalized value.

What does it mean to be mature?

It troubles me a lot that in chronologically mature adults, I too often see only reactive behavior, not the thought process that leads to evaluating and decision-making. Not thinking.

Somewhere, we are failing as parents, educators, politicians, leaders, and as religious people. There is way too much reliance on “rules” to govern behavior. It is an emphasis on compliance instead of understanding values. Laws demand unthinking compliance. Love, which is the basis of Christianity and many other religions, requires thinking (evaluation) and transformation.

There is a significant difference between the two. Behavior based on compliance is mindless: a lack of free will, stimulus/response. Behavior based on values is something we learn and internalize: we consider, we evaluate, we decide.

Children usually start with compliance. They often don’t comply with rules because they seem irrelevant because they don’t understand the consequences to others or themselves. People don’t fully appreciate consequences until they are around age 27.

Oddly, age 27 is the same current age at which the average person moves out of their parent’s home, and also gets married. I don’t fully understand the correlation because it’s partly driven by economics.

Perhaps it has to do with maturity. We learn and internalize values as we mature through experience.

We not only don’t teach people to think, but we also don’t give them the tools to think with. Language, which is a vocabulary packed with experiential meaning, and grammar, is the basic tool of thought.

Determinism versus free will: Argh!

For example, we don’t expect a bear in the woods to tackle issues such as determinism versus free will. But a person needs to understand that free will is essential for a society to function. Determinism leads to lawlessness because people feel not responsible for their behavior that is driven by other forces. Free enables love that is about how we treat others. With free will, people have to be responsible for the behavior that results from their choices.

Sometimes, I wonder if society can grasp this concept at all. I just read an article today in which philosophers are still grappling with this issue as they try to reformulate philosophy.

It possibly could be an oversimplification of cognitive psychology. I thought the behaviorism approach went out the window in the ’80s with Skinner’s black box idea about the brain.

Determinism versus free will seems like an excellent discussion for Philosophy 101, but as people mature, they either grow to understand or are required to understand that they are confronted endlessly by behavioral choices they are responsible for.

They can choose to grab the food that isn’t theirs, like hungry animals do, or they can choose to earn money to buy food. Free will begins to develop when there are choices and principles that require thought.

At some point, they can choose a higher value system as a guide and then choose whether to conform their behavior to the higher system or not. It actually requires thinking—something that seems to be becoming less frequent in our “It’s all about me” knee-jerk reactive society.

How do we best serve language to the world?

I believe that we do the world a disservice by not passing on language that gives people the tools to think with. But just as importantly, if we don’t pass on some meaning that fleshes out the word, then we have accomplished nothing. It’s like handing someone an auger and not telling them what an auger can do. Augers drill holes in things. And then we have to know how and where to use the tool. It is perspective that comes from ideas passed on by language.

Language is very important to thinking (deliberating, considering, evaluating, perspective, discriminating, judging, choosing), but it is the exercise of thinking that develops the ability to think. We need to pass that ability to others, especially the ability to think critically. Next time an editor asks you to dumb it down, just grunt like an ape, ask them how soon they want us to all talk in grunts, and hand them this blog-article.

Changing religious language

Over the centuries, religion has developed many buzzwords to represent concepts. However, language and ideas change over time. For example, the word “Lord” was commonly used in Judaism to represent God. This implies a power relationship or a master-servant relationship. This idea is still popular in religion. But people have free will. This is inconsistent with free will because the power relationship drives our behavior. If our choices and behavior are up to us, then the idea doesn’t fit the relationship.

The word “sin” was and is used to mean disobedience to God. It signifies blind obedience. It is not about thinking or considering the consequences of actions and becoming a transformed person who thinks and behaves in terms of love for others.

The Kingdom of Heaven is framed as an extension of earthly kingdoms, yet most countries (over half) are democracies, and kingship is a quaint notion. In many countries, kings and queens are figureheads and have no real power. Yet we wave the word “king” like a flag.

We realize we have free will and can do as we please. The consequences will likely catch up to us. We may eventually have to pay the piper. Our freedom in Jesus is a democracy, not a king or master-slave relationship.

Even the Bible uses different words for sin. The Hebrew Bible divides sin into categories of intentionality. The more intentional a sin is, the more it demands a worse punishment or sacrifice.

The New Testament uses words or phrases like “missing the mark,” “falling short,” “wrongdoing,” and “trespasses.” Both the Hebrew and New Testament words for sin are derived from archery and imply missing the bull’s-eye.

The word “sin” is a label we put on behavior that we judge as going against God’s will. If we can pin that label on someone, it dehumanizes them. They become an object. A “sinner,” somehow unworthy of God’s love or ours. In contrast, God’s will is love. However, when people see something they don’t like, they drop a sledgehammer on it: sin. Rather than help the person transform, if that’s really the problem, they smack them out of existence.

We have to realize that we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23-24). None of us is perfect. We do things we shouldn’t (commission) and neglect doing things we should (omission). We just need to acknowledge that we fell short. We didn’t hit the mark. And remember it’s about our behavior, not about us. Forgiveness ends the separation so that we are all deserving.

Calling it falling short doesn’t mean our behavior was appropriate. That’s dismissive. It means we recognize we have room for improvement.

Other phrases have developed over time, such as the words “sanctified” (c. 1400) and “secular” (c. 1300). These words create an artificial boundary between religious people and the world. Yet, there is no real boundary there. The world is a reflection of us and of the endless possibilities we have for good or bad behavior.

Our mission as Christians is to transform the world into followers of the way to live shown to us by Jesus, so that they are in the “Kingdom” of God, which is here and now. Creating a boundary pulls people away from that task because people emphasize not being part of “the world.” Words have tremendous power to shape our behavior.

Many of the words used by Christians are off-putting to people. They don’t understand them and feel uncomfortable around those who use them.

We need to root out thinking from ancient Judaism and replace it with Jesus’ thinking.

Conclusion after this about church planning:

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Conclusion

Communication is a drive we have as humans. We communicate in many ways. A foghorn tells us of a nearby ship. Facial expressions and body language communicate feelings. If we can’t speak, we develop sign language. Native Americans used sign language to communicate between tribes. Words convey meaning if we understand the meaning of the word. Foghorns, signs, facial expressions, and body language are all symbols created by people to carry meaning from one person to another.

We need to understand the role of language in our lives and in others’ lives. We need to make sure that we understand each other by using words that clearly convey meaning, and reach for words that convey complex ideas that are essential to personal growth.

We need to understand that words are essential to the process becoming individuals, and especially of thinking. If we don’t have words to represent ideas, then our thinking is impaired. Open systems expand. Closed systems are forever frozen in time. The brain, by its nature, is an open system unless we close it. I explore this in my free fiction ebook, Open Versus Closed.

Well chosen words can open up new windows of thinking for people. The word “ontology” made me think. In AI development, ontologies are common as lists of attributes. I later wrote a book, Ontology of God (the nature of God), which I later rewrote as Appease the Volcano. to use less acaademic language.

Well chosen words can help us recognize and understand our own emotions, put them in perspective, and help us deal with them. For example, envy and jealousy are two very different feelings.

Our words in Christian thought need to reflect Jesus and what it means to be transformed, and that we all fall short at times. Which is most of the time for me. This is a very different way of thinking and experiencing from the legalese method of pounding people over the head with the words like sin and disobedience to God. But it is more reflective of our actuality as Christians.

Let’s make the world more understandable to people by, as they tell kindergarten children who are hitting each other, “Use your words.”

A pastor of a church where I was assistant pastor said to me, “Use big words occasionally to let them know you’re educated.” I think this is done a lot. In academia, more direct and understandable words can be used. See 100+ Research Vocabulary Words & Phrases.

I’ve had others insist that grammar and spelling are essential to good writing. I reply, if it’s understandable and communicates, it’s good writing. There is no point being a writing snob.

Of course we should always use More Active and Precise Verbs. I’m guilty a lot.

In my new Facebook group, New Way Forward, launching in first quarter this year, I hope to help people learn things like are in this blog-article so they can affect change. The group will be informed by a course I’m creating on how to create change. If you don’t know how, you spin your wheels and accomplish nothing. But we can solve problems and do it in a way in which everyone benefits. Please join me.

Teaching emotions.

The Bible: “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.” – James 1:19

Probability Space

What probability spaces can we open in our minds to begin using our vocabularies appropriately so that we aren’t dumbing people down but lifting them up?

(A probability space is where all of the elements necessary for something to happen are present and it’s almost inevitable. All it takes is intention.)

Potential Space

If you think creatively and allow your mind to wander and explore, are there new words that might encapsulate new ideas for us and others?
For example, in Christian thought, love, meaning our good treatment of us and others, is transforming. Could the ancient Greek words for divine love that we all receive and share with others, and change, be a new word: agapemorph? Would this describe the Christian experience better than talking about being obedient to God and master-slave relationships in a strange kingdom? Or would it just be off-putting? Better minds than mine can come up with better words.

(A potential space is a virtual space in our minds where entirely new things can take shape.)

More: Is Music A Form Of Prayer?

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Bible scripture verses are New American Standard Version (NASB), unless noted.

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Author and books

Appease the Volcano: What does God require from people? The voices of the ancients from many religions echo much of the same things: It starts with law, then mercy and forgiveness, then love. Love is a major emphasis in all major religions and replaces law.

The Prophetic Pattern: Ancient and Modern Prophecy: How to distinguish the intent of various types of prophecies and oracles, both ancient and modern.

Preparing For the Future Of Work and Education: Analysis of the kinds of jobs that AI and Robotics will displace, and the educational requirements for them. AI will replace or augment thirty percent of jobs. This is an in-depth analysis citing many authoritative sources.

Author Website: Dorian Scott Cole

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