{"id":3167,"date":"2020-04-27T11:43:52","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T11:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/04\/27\/unthinkable-used-thoughtlessly-2\/"},"modified":"2020-04-27T11:43:52","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T11:43:52","slug":"unthinkable-used-thoughtlessly-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/04\/27\/unthinkable-used-thoughtlessly-2\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Unthinkable&#8217; Used Thoughtlessly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a class=\"asset-img-link\" href=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/.a\/6a010535ce1cf6970c025d9b4aa833200c-pi\" style=\"float: left;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Walter\" class=\"asset  asset-image at-xid-6a010535ce1cf6970c025d9b4aa833200c img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/.a\/6a010535ce1cf6970c025d9b4aa833200c-320wi\" style=\"margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px;\" title=\"Walter\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 12pt;\">People say that such-and-such is &#39;unthinkable.&#39; An electromagnetic pulse, for example, one that destroys the power distribution grid, would be a calamity in comparison to which the current pandemic would pale into insignificance.&#0160; This is said to be &#39;unthinkable.&#39; And yet we are now thinking about it. What one thinks about can be thought about, and is therefore thinkable.&#0160; So the calamity in question is precisely <em>not<\/em> &#39;unthinkable.&#39; Nor is it &#39;unimaginable.&#39; I can imagine it and so can you. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 12pt;\">People use these expressions because they thoughtlessly repeat what they hear other people say.&#0160; That&#39;s my explanation. Do you have a better one? <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 12pt;\">Not every test is a litmus test. So why do people refer to any old test as a litmus test? Same explanation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 12pt;\">I could continue with the examples. And you hope I won&#39;t. Don&#39;t be a linguistic lemming. Think. The mind you save may be your own.<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 12pt;\">Language matters.&#0160; Walter approves of this message.<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People say that such-and-such is &#39;unthinkable.&#39; An electromagnetic pulse, for example, one that destroys the power distribution grid, would be a calamity in comparison to which the current pandemic would pale into insignificance.&#0160; This is said to be &#39;unthinkable.&#39; And yet we are now thinking about it. What one thinks about can be thought about, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/04\/27\/unthinkable-used-thoughtlessly-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8216;Unthinkable&#8217; Used Thoughtlessly&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}