Learning radically different languages ironically does the opposite; it helps you think about and communicate concepts. What this person is realistically saying here, is that they are so worried about being unable to teach their children to ask critical questions and read between the lines, media literacy, that they'll put them in a box and project shame on to anyone who doesn't do that.

Most rational linkedin essay post I've ever seen.

Same goes for English. Pick a language. Pick a culture.

Ethnocentrism works equally for all languages and cultures.

It’s not about the language first. It’s about overcoming our idiotic primate nature to believe that our group/pack/population is better than anther.

While it was a survival mechanism thousands of years ago, now it just impedes the off humanity. Usually through mindsets like you’ve just outlined which feeds fear and bigotry instead of advancing our society.

So as soon as you learn Chinese , the great Chinese firewall applies to you? /s

I'm not reading all that, Harry Potter

something something sapir-whorf

Why has Harry Potter devoted his entire personality to “exposing China’s collapse” though?

I bet Ken felt very embarrassed when he reread this when he wasn't completely blazed.

Exposing China prolapse

Not a bad idea, but a bad conclusion.

My view of languages is that they're sort of like an operating system for the mind. There are certain concepts that I can only express in certain languages. For example: the German zeitgeist. I can just say that in German, but there isn't an English equivalent. I have to describe is as spirit of the times, general feeling, the vibe of society. Same with the Russian домохозяйства, I can call it home economics/housekeeping, but in English that phrase is much more gendered, and doesn't really encompass the same concept of running an entire household not just in the cooking and cleaning sense, but also in terms of financial priorities and decision making regarding the family (see, I'd say family planning but that only means birth control in English).

Hence, operating system of the mind. The same way that you need an emulator to run mac software on windows, you need to spend more time describing certain concepts when the language has no word for them.

This also leads to differences in thinking. When you lack the words to express your thoughts, then you don't talk about them. You don't refine them into clear concepts. And eventually, you stop thinking them altogether.

Orwell was on point with newspeak. Language control is directly thought control. Taking away the words necessary to express thoughts makes those thoughts unthinkable.

Ken needs a hobby. Too much time on his hands.

Idk who found the post and is downvoting it and many of the comments. Please let yourself be known by replying here.

ken cao needs to look at the world and not just screens. What an impoverished vision :\

You could replace Chinese with Russian and the author with Ayn Rand. If she had had kids.

It's the same rationalizing of hatred and disdain. A wounded mind lashing out at the source of it's pain.