Thinking and speaking

I sometimes hear a sentence like this: "I mean, its like, phew.....weird.....ya know what I mean?" Well actually, no. I can't know what you mean unless you say something. That string of words does not qualify as a sentence. First of all, the word "like" is much too over used. Consider the sentence, " I was, like, hungry." That says it is as if you were hungry.......not that you actually were hungry. "like" is a weasel word that slides away from a forthright declaration. Then our sample sentence rests on the word "weird" as the only subject of the sentence. "weird" means unearthly or bizarre. I have heard it applied to many things and none of them were unearthly or bizarre. The sentence in question was applied to traffic conditions that were all too earthly and too usual. The entire subject of the sentence was misused.

One more example and I'll leave it alone. The word "awesome" applies a religious experience primarily. If you find tennis shoes and tacos awesome, how do you think of the nature of God? Do you use the same word? How do you make a distinction?

Its not just schoolmarmish - we think with words and if we lack clarity and vocabulary we will diminish our ability to think. Then we will elect idiots because we can't think critically.