
| Mollie Engelhart is an entrepreneur, chef, farmer and advocate for regenerative agriculture. |
I often get criticized in the comments for softening my language. The critics aren’t entirely wrong.
I rarely say that I slaughtered a steer. I usually say that I harvested one. In agriculture, that’s common language. It sounds more respectful, more professional, and less harsh. At the same time, I’m often the first person to roll my eyes when someone says “unhoused” instead of “homeless.”
My instinct is to think that changing the word doesn’t change reality. Lately, though, I’ve been wondering whether I’m holding everyone else to a standard I’m not holding myself to.
Maybe we’re all doing it.
Maybe all of us, regardless of our politics or profession, have become experts at shaping reality through language. Words don’t simply describe the world. They shape the way we experience it. They influence how deeply we feel something, how urgently we respond, and ultimately what we’re willing to tolerate. That may be why language has become one of the greatest battlegrounds of our time.
Consider how often we soften the emotional weight of difficult things. Layoffs become workforce reductions. Torture becomes enhanced interrogation. Civilian deaths become collateral damage. Abortion becomes reproductive healthcare in some conversations, reproductive rights in others, abortion in many, and murder in others still.
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Continúa la guerra entre la coalición de los Estados Unidos e Israel versus la República Islámica de Irán. Sigue sin una solución definitiva y duradera. Aún no existe un acuerdo de paz estable. Tampoco aparece un claro ganador.
La neurocientífica
publicada por la revista Palabra Nueva de la Arquidiócesis de La Habana, que reúne circulares, cartas pastorales, exhortaciones, declaraciones y homilías de obispos, arzobispos y de la Conferencia Episcopal Cubana entre 1914 y 1994. Es un archivo de valor incalculable porque no es una reconstrucción posterior ni una interpretación de segunda mano: es la voz institucional de la Iglesia católica cubana, en su propio lenguaje y en el momento mismo en que los hechos ocurrían.