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The Hofmann Wobble: Wikipedia and the problem of historical memory

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The driver relocated from New York to California's East Bay to begin a new-media fellowship at an institute established by a prominent linguist. Throughout the trip, the fellow listened to an audiobook detailing how concepts like "tax relief" place opponents at a rhetorical disadvantage unless alternative frames are used. Upon reaching the destination, the fellow settled into an unaffordable studio apartment on Derby Street furnished with Ikea items and a free Craigslist mattress.

Key points

  • The driver traveled across the country to take up a new-media fellowship at a think tank…: The driver traveled across the country to take up a new-media fellowship at a think tank focused on progressive political framing.
  • Conceptual frameworks in language heavily influence political debates by embedding specif…: Conceptual frameworks in language heavily influence political debates by embedding specific biases, such as casting taxation as an affliction.
  • Settling into the East Bay required furnishing an expensive Berkeley apartment using Crai…: Settling into the East Bay required furnishing an expensive Berkeley apartment using Craigslist and Ikea.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

At twenty-six, in 2006, the year before the iPhone launched, I found myself driving a red Subaru Outback—the color was technically “claret metallic,” the friend who’d lent me the car had told me, in case I ever wanted to touch up the paint—on Highway 12 in Utah. I was heading to the East Bay after a painful breakup in New York. I remember, wrongly, that I was listening to a book on tape, a work by a prominent linguist, as I moved through the alien landscape, jagged formations of red rock towering against a cloudless sky.

Consider the metaphorical association of argument and war, the linguist says in my memory, the way we speak of “attacking” or “defending” our “position.” If we frame an argument metaphorically as armed conflict then we will think of our interlocutor as an enemy. But what would happen, the voice asked me as I gripped the wheel with both hands, tense from fifteen hours of continuous driving, having pulled over only for gas and Red Bull and granola bars and Camels since departing Omaha, where…

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