Small thread on why words are important, using @piersmorgan as an example

Here he misuses the words 'surges' and 'spike' to imply deaths are still accelerating. In actual fact it seems to be fattening, and infection rates are falling

So what's wrong with misusing words?

Words are important because the truth is important. Words like surge and spike put a particular emotional slant on the tweet - panic, anger, disgust. Piers then aims these emotions at the government.

It is of course fundamentally dishonest, but worse than that it erases context

And without context there's no way to judge if the UK government are doing well or badly. The emotion in the tweet means they MUST be doing badly. Right?

Now if you pull him or a follower up on his language, what will they say?

I'll tell you

They'll say "OH! So you DON'T THINK that NINE HUNDRED DEATHS is HELLISH then?!"

Of course this is bollocks. Everyone is appalled. But it's another way of altering discourse based on emotion. If you act outraged and make an accusation like that, you don't have to tackle the point

The danger with this messaging from people with huge followings like him is that he elicits an emotional response in his followers rather than a logical one. And panicking people never make good decisions.

We need calm heads. Piers needs to use his platform more carefully.

Um, flattening