Language, Ideology and Zeitgeist Updates
Much online discussion this year has addressed the baleful influence of the manosphere and incels on new language, and perhaps also on new attitudes and digital behaviour. Lucy Knight gathered together the strands of the debates for a feature in the Guardian, and asked me to contribute. Her article is here…
In May I was contacted by Dazed magazine for a piece on the same subject, but I declined in deference to the acknowledged authority on these cultural mutations. Author Thom Waite duly took his cues from Adam Aleksic rather than me…
The Lexis Podcast, to which I have been lucky enough to contribute to in the past, had a very interesting episode on the digital rhetoric emanating from these same dubious sources…
Despite the focus on looksmaxxing and biohacking, chads and chuds and mogging, the slang of young people who may not be radicalised or posing as influencers, especially when used online or on platforms such as TikToK, continues to intrigue, if not baffle and provoke older generations. I spoke to Amy Wild about this for her piece in the Telegraph and it was significant I think that the experts consulted did not in their quoted remarks actually endorse the negative thrust of the article…
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02/20/internet-speak-changing-english-language
tony thorne 