Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I figured I'd ask this here since this is in reference to general conversation, and the way humans think has to do w/ how they speak.
I've looked up the standard definitions offered, and looked at various videos on it, however; when the word nuance is referenced in terms of people talking about issues they disagree on, or controversial topics, does it mean to have a down to the finite details discussion or something of the sort?
Nuances are subtle differences and distinctions, so to have nuanced conversation means to see and discuss the various shades of grey in between the black and white examples.
I found this interpretation which in my view and understanding is what is being referenced.. "In many ways, I think “nuance” has come to stand in for a clear-headed objectivity. To see things with nuance is to take in both sides, to see the truth, to view the world without emotional fog obscuring your vision".
Source: https://apnews.com/article/c81a0c196...3c6854f78bdc16
I found this interpretation which in my view and understanding is what is being referenced.. "In many ways, I think “nuance” has come to stand in for a clear-headed objectivity. To see things with nuance is to take in both sides, to see the truth, to view the world without emotional fog obscuring your vision".
Source: https://apnews.com/article/c81a0c196...3c6854f78bdc16
I didn't like that article, I thought it was superficial. " Every single time we face a mass shooting in our country, the nuanced, objective, coldly rational will tell us that now is not the time to talk about solutions or, worse yet, turn the talk to politics. Let’s wait until we all calm down and do not have messy feelings that will get in the way of rational decision making. And thus the status quo is preserved."
"Nuanced" doesn't mean objective, coldly rational. It means look at the details. "the Devil is in the details". The dictionary definition of subtle differences is technically true, but it's not usually the complete meaning when discussing a nuanced view of a political situation.
When you talk about a nuanced view, it is the opposite of what I call the "bumper sticker" view. An example is universal health care. "Medicare for all". that is a bumper sticker slogan.
When you start getting into a more nuanced view, you have to start being specific about what "medicare" means, what "for all" means. There are lots of very details questions that take a lot of time to look up, to document, to research, to discuss.
To take a nuanced view, you have to consider how much health care are we talking about? Are we talking about everyone on the planet being able to get gold-plated care? Of course not. So where are the boundaries, and who is going to set them, and who is going to monitor the results? How are we going to keep the criminals from ripping us off? What if the crminals are the ones doing the policing? How much public ovesight will there be? Will there be so much paperwork that it drowns out the whole system?
Same thing with immigration - how many of what kinds of people and skills do we want to let into the country? "No border! No walls!" or "Shut down the Borders" Those are bumper-sticker slogans.
A real discussion is very deep and very complicated - that's what people mean when they say we need a more nuanced dialog.
It's just the opposite of people posting a cartoon or photoshopped joke on Facebook and consider that contributing to the discussion.
I like you say about the bumper sticker view. There's a whole lot of truth to that.
I also think that there's enough people out there, who aren't critical thinkers. For instance, just because someone uses a declarative sentence doesn't mean they're stating facts, and it would behoove people to consider that.
I remember a few months back, many people I knew were on the Epstein/pedo band wagon, to call out all these supposed celebrities who flew on the Epstein plane to go to the Epstein Island. And they would declare "It's on the flight manifest!"
So I ask "have a link to the flight manifest?" and the person sends me a link to a story that supposedly has the flight manifest in it. I'm 200 PAGES into this thing, and come across a list of many individuals, most well known, nicely typed out. ANYONE can type a list of people they don't like, and say "they were on the plane." That doesn't mean they were on the plane. And the person was not able to actually provide me proof, and when I asked the person "Look, I'm 200 pages in to this thing, and I have yet to come across a link to the ACTUAL manifest. Can you narrow down the search for me?" No, the person could not. This was a link provided to him, and he assumed it was accurate. Ok then. I'm done.
Maybe the word "nuanced" has undergone a subtle change of definition since my college years. Or maybe I've always had a nuanced idea of what it meant. LOL
I always thought nuance meant something that had unspoken implications and these could be negative.
For instance a mother and two children can be described as a single parent family or as a fatherless family.
Do you think this thread may do better in the wordsmith forum? There are people there with an excellent grasp of language.
I figured I'd ask this here since this is in reference to general conversation, and the way humans think has to do w/ how they speak.
I've looked up the standard definitions offered, and looked at various videos on it, however; when the word nuance is referenced in terms of people talking about issues they disagree on, or controversial topics, does it mean to have a down to the finite details discussion or something of the sort?
Thank you
It means pay attention to context and the more specific aspects of the discussion in general.
When people talk about people not paying enough attention to nuance, they're usually talking about someone not examining the topic in as much detail as would be appropriate to examine the topic in.
An example was, there was a story about a woman who sued McDonald's because her hot coffee hurt her when she spilled it on herself. Everyone was talking about how silly she was, because obviously hot coffee is hot. Those complainers didn't look into that news story enough though, and so they didn't pay enough attention to nuance. Had they looked into it more they would have discovered that she got some pretty severe burns from that coffee. It had not been just hot, but incredibly hot.
It means pay attention to context and the more specific aspects of the discussion in general.
When people talk about people not paying enough attention to nuance, they're usually talking about someone not examining the topic in as much detail as would be appropriate to examine the topic in.
An example was, there was a story about a woman who sued McDonald's because her hot coffee hurt her when she spilled it on herself. Everyone was talking about how silly she was, because obviously hot coffee is hot. Those complainers didn't look into that news story enough though, and so they didn't pay enough attention to nuance. Had they looked into it more they would have discovered that she got some pretty severe burns from that coffee. It had not been just hot, but incredibly hot.
And they had been warned multiple times, that it was TOO hot, but McDonald's chose to ignore that factoid.
I didn't like that article, I thought it was superficial. " Every single time we face a mass shooting in our country, the nuanced, objective, coldly rational will tell us that now is not the time to talk about solutions or, worse yet, turn the talk to politics. Let’s wait until we all calm down and do not have messy feelings that will get in the way of rational decision making. And thus the status quo is preserved."
"Nuanced" doesn't mean objective, coldly rational. It means look at the details. "the Devil is in the details". The dictionary definition of subtle differences is technically true, but it's not usually the complete meaning when discussing a nuanced view of a political situation.
When you talk about a nuanced view, it is the opposite of what I call the "bumper sticker" view. An example is universal health care. "Medicare for all". that is a bumper sticker slogan.
When you start getting into a more nuanced view, you have to start being specific about what "medicare" means, what "for all" means. There are lots of very details questions that take a lot of time to look up, to document, to research, to discuss.
To take a nuanced view, you have to consider how much health care are we talking about? Are we talking about everyone on the planet being able to get gold-plated care? Of course not. So where are the boundaries, and who is going to set them, and who is going to monitor the results? How are we going to keep the criminals from ripping us off? What if the crminals are the ones doing the policing? How much public ovesight will there be? Will there be so much paperwork that it drowns out the whole system?
Same thing with immigration - how many of what kinds of people and skills do we want to let into the country? "No border! No walls!" or "Shut down the Borders" Those are bumper-sticker slogans.
A real discussion is very deep and very complicated - that's what people mean when they say we need a more nuanced dialog.
It's just the opposite of people posting a cartoon or photoshopped joke on Facebook and consider that contributing to the discussion.
I really love your definition here. I'll have to utilize this and in my view you explained this very well. I especially like this part of your explanation. "
A real discussion is very deep and very complicated - that's what people mean when they say we need a more nuanced dialog.
It's just the opposite of people posting a cartoon or photoshopped joke on Facebook and consider that contributing to the discussion."
Maybe the word "nuanced" has undergone a subtle change of definition since my college years. Or maybe I've always had a nuanced idea of what it meant. LOL
I always thought nuance meant something that had unspoken implications and these could be negative.
For instance a mother and two children can be described as a single parent family or as a fatherless family.
Do you think this thread may do better in the wordsmith forum? There are people there with an excellent grasp of language.
Probably so, I did not know that thread existed so I'll have to go look for it. I posted it here though as my view was that although there is a technical definition, the way it seems to be used now is what I would see as more of various psychological factors. Thank you
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
