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Comment by MarkLowenstein | Hacker News Reader

I think this is the phenomenon behind people's mealy-mouthed inability to speak fluently these days, filling time with "like", "you know", etc. We now live in a world where anything you say is a potential landmine of violations of strict politically and morally correct thinking. It takes energy to evaluate what you are about to say, and self-censor before you step on one...energy that is subtracted from planning the expression of your next point.

Compare people's apologetic and noncommittal tech presentations now, to those from the old films with 1950s people in their lab coats and thick-rimmed glasses. They had utmost confidence and verbal fluency back then.

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I don't think this is a good example. There was a huge barrier to entry in the 50s to end up in a position to be recorded talking about something. Capable speakers would have been chosen more often than not.

There has always been pressure from various groups to say or not say things. I think the only thing that has drastically changed is how much easier it is to put something out there, and for the public to respond.

I'm sure Galileo would think political correctness is much better now than in his time.

edit: I just found this link that is a pretty interesting list of scientists being ignored, ridiculed, beaten, jailed, and killed for politically incorrect ideas that were later proven correct.

https://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/maveri...

I appreciate that response and link. Maybe Lowenstein's Theory of Mealy-Mouthism will be on there someday, after 3 or 4 pariah years.

Well, Galileo was held under house arrest and his books were banned. We do not put people under house arrest for heresy yet, but we do fire them from jobs and make sure they can't speak or write publicly. And we sure do ban (and sometimes burn) books. So yes, Galileo would probably find the modern culture better, but only marginally - and we haven't reached the peak yet... Maybe house arrests are coming too. Many countries already prepare laws that allow to arrest people for "hate speech" or "misinformation" - exactly what Galileo got in trouble for (it was called "heresy" then but tomayto-tomato).

If people are getting punched (virtually and sometimes physically) for speaking their mind, then there's no wonder there would be people reluctant to speak their mind. You reap what you sow. If you build the society on safety rather than success - and that's where American society is definitely turning (or should I say, have turned) - then you get mealy-mouthed safespacers instead of bold outspoken geniuses.

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