Joseph Romm

Aug 14, 2024 | newsweek.com | Joseph Romm

Two of the most successful storytellers in the world, former President Donald Trump and singer Taylor Swift, are masters of the ancient art of cryptic communication. It's a central reason they have die-hard fans and broad societal impact. While the media joins in the fun of decoding Swift, they still treat Trump's anti-democratic word salads as if they were a computer virus, not a well-designed feature.

Dec 20, 2023 | themessenger.com | Joseph Romm

“In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible,” George Orwell argued in Politics and the English Language, his classic 1946 essay. “Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism … and sheer cloudy vagueness.”Few things are more indefensible in my view than our multi-decade failure to address fossil-fuel-driven climate change.

Dec 16, 2023 | themessenger.com | Joseph Romm

In 2010, when my daughter was three, she started saying “blah, blah, blah.” I was okay with her repeating things she heard — if she used them correctly. So, I asked her if she knew what “blah, blah, blah” meant. She paused and said, “It’s when Daddy says something that doesn’t matter.” Dang. She did know. Until I had a daughter, I never realized just how often I said things that don’t matter.

Dec 16, 2023 | flipboard.com | Joseph Romm

9 hours ago"Major labels have since made it more difficult for artists to rerecord their music." When Taylor Swift was named Time's Person of the Year, a lot of people noticed a two-sentence quote in her interview: "[T]here's no point in actively trying to 'quote unquote' defeat your enemies. Trash takes itself …

Sep 17, 2023 | themessenger.com | Joseph Romm |Auden Schendler

Apple recently released a five-minute ad in which a fictional Mother Nature grills executives on the company’s environmental performance. The ad made Apple look self-critical and diligent. But, to us, it represents monumental greenwashing. Worse, the company’s dubious carbon-neutral claims may even set the company up for a potential lawsuit. And Apple is not alone: Rival Microsoft — and many other companies — are playing similar games.