Welcome to a new season of the Film The World Podcast! Trick O’Moore is back on the mic, welcoming listeners into an exploration of language, history, storytelling, and the strange quirks that connect us all.
Trick wastes no time getting philosophical, diving right into the concept of a "known bias attribute." Before tackling big, juicy topics like UAPs or money (don’t worry, those are coming!), Trick urges us to take our time and set a foundation by examining language itself—which, as he notes, everything else is built upon.
A “known bias attribute,” according to Trick, is essentially any commonly recognized element—be it word, story, or meme—that exists in the public domain and is frequently used within a community. These form the basis of our shared understanding, allowing us to communicate and build meaning. Aligning these definitions, he says, makes everything so much easier—and history helps, too.
Taking us on a mini tour through history, Trick reminds us of how language has always adapted to serve our need for consistent communication—from fireside stories passed down through generations, to songs that, even if lyrics are forgotten, retain their emotional impact in tone and rhythm. There’s a beauty here: meaning can outlive the specific words, “and they can become sometimes more than they are or whatever, you know, and hopefully they are, because I think these ideas are evolving.”
This is not just nostalgia—it’s a point about how, while language keeps changing, the fundamental need for shared understanding has never gone away.
In one of the episode’s key ideas, Trick argues that language has always served as a technology, “a different form of technology”—from the written word to the spoken, and into singing or color associations. Consistency was once so crucial that if languages shifted too much between communities, “eggs aren’t getting out to market, nobody’s getting chicken. You know what I mean?” In other words, society needs common ground to function.
But something changed. Trick zeroes in on a pivotal moment: 1961, the publication of Webster’s Third New International Dictionary. Previously, dictionaries provided hard-and-fast rules for “proper” English (“ain’t” was strictly forbidden, for example). But Webster’s Third ditched much of the prescriptivism, opting instead for a more descriptive, “here’s-how-people-actually-talk” approach. Language, writes Trick, “became clay once again… the language was absolutely manipulated.”
This “departure from historical rules” didn’t just impact English—the ripple effect spread to other languages and localities. The result? Modern language is “ever malleable,” for better or worse.
Trick’s point isn’t that this evolution is good or bad—just that it is. Definitions, rules, and even the very bricks of language are always being shaped by use, history, bias, and culture. This episode sets the stage for future deep dives into society’s oddities, conspiracies, and the big questions—but first, Trick wants us all to respect the foundation.
As the episode wraps, Trick promises, “I am going to be going pretty ham on this topic, okay? This is just the baseline.” The Film The World Podcast is just getting started, and we’re all invited to be a brick in the wall, helping to build (and re-build) our shared world of meaning.
Stay tuned for more explorations into the language of the human condition, and make sure to check out almightyportal.com for more blog posts and references!
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