Oxford University Press picked “brain rot” as the phrase of the year, defining it as the perceived result of consuming the internet's endless waves of memes and video clips. Today in “On-Target,” Steven Beschloss and I praise an NPR report about how the phrase was coined in 1854 by Henry David Thoreau, who wrote, “Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense?” The enemy, for both Thoreau and modern people, is oversimplification, like (we dare say) the “reporting” on propaganda outlets like Fox News.
Beschloss is the author of the outstanding “America, America” newsletter. Consider subscribing. Also, subscribe to my free “Stop the Presses” newsletter if you haven’t already.
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