My domestic partner has noticed a recent profusion of "folks" in broadcast media. Lately, reporters, anchors and commentators seem incapable of talking about people, taxpayers, citizens or men and women. [It's hard to capture this from the airwaves, but Katherine Kersten used the term five times in a recent Minnpost interview.]
"I would look at myself as being someone who can bring all of those folks together," [Republican State Rep. Marty Seifert] said. "Because, frankly, to win this election you not only need the traditional Republicans and the main street folks and the tea party folks, you also need a good chunk of conservative Democrats and independents, and I've done that in my legislative district seven times."
Is this all because of Gary Eichten and Barack Obama, or are we experiencing a deeper culture shift?
Or have we always been folks, and I'm only just noticing it?
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Another weirdity is how the "similar stories" algorithms work on news sites. For example, here's a helpful set up links that appeared under a recent online editorial. See if you can guess the subject before you click the link.
I don't know whether this is some kind of evil meta-commentary or just random key word nonsense.
