The loudest voices aren’t always the, er, correctest

There’s a very good film called Spinal Tap about a fictional rock band. One of the (many) iconic ideas to come out of this film is the idea of ‘turning it up to 11’. Essentially the guitarist had his amplifiers adapted to have an extra volume level (they usually go up to 10). He thought it was especially rock-and-roll.

The internet is full of people talking at Volume 11. The most extreme members on both sides of any community, debate, or idea always speak the loudest. It’s true whether you’re talking about gay rights, feminism, the best setting for Christmas tree lights, or chicken husbandry.

Getting caught up in comma conventions

Let’s use as an example something that happened in both of the sentences above: I used an Oxford Comma. This is a comma that comes before the last item in a list. Its grammatical correctness and value is hotly debated.

On one side is the Church of the Rightful Comma. These devotees place great faith in the Oxford Comma. They gather every Sunday to chant three-item lists, pausing notably before the third item each time. Both ear lobes and one nostril is pierced so that they may wear the ceremonial three silver commas upon their faces. They don’t get invited to parties much.

On the other side is the Cult of the Naked And. These heathens believe that there should be but one comma in a list of three items, just two in a list of four items, and so on. They gather together in gangs to roam around towns and cities, stealing commas from signs and burning them on ceremonial pyres.

They also don’t get invited to parties much.

In the middle is the majority of people. They’ve either heard of the Oxford Comma and quite like it (like me), have heard of it and don’t really like it, use it without knowing what it’s called, or haven’t heard of it and don’t use it. Remember, this is the biggest bunch of people by far.

Fringe factions at full ferocity

But the two extremes of the argument, by their very nature, draw the most attention. They shout the loudest. They often write in all capitals. It’s a ‘tip of the iceberg’ situation; while that one chunk was charging headlong at the Titanic the rest of it underwater was muttering ‘Look, we’re really sorry about all this – it’s Gary up there, he just won’t let it go’.

Whether it’s people on the internet you’ve never met, people you’re acquainted with on an online forum, or your closest friends, don’t rush to correlate someone’s passion, volume, and vigour with the truthfulness of what they are saying.

Many times the truth is whispered while the lie is shouted.

Apart from in the Lion King, where Scar shouts ‘I killed Mufasa’ and, you know what, that prick totally did kill Mufasa.


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Header photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash

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