The Importance of Words

(c) Dr. James J. Dines, esquire - January, 2025

"The pen is mightier than the sword" - Edward Bulwer-Lytton - Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy (1839)

Words used with intention convey great power. They can be used to empower others, or they can serve to misdirect and confuse. Some words don't have commonly agreed upon definitions.  Sometimes they start that way then get misused repeatedly until linguistic purists finally capitulate and enforce the redefinition.

The word "hacker" is an example of this phenomenon that has played out in my lifetime.  Until the word entered the mainstream vernacular it referred to a person who performs tasks in a clever manner involving creativity.  There was no requirement that computers were involved at all, which can be taken as a priori since the term was used prior to the mass proliferation of computers.  Sometimes hackers picked locks or broke into secure areas in order to gain knowledge, but there was never any malicious intent.  Indeed, a core value of true hackers is that they avoid damaging systems, harming personnel, or misusing the information gained via their activities. There is a term for people who don't hold to these moral ideals: "crackers."

Unfortunately a journalist reported upon an incident that occurred where a hacker violated this moral code using the term "hacker" when he should have used the term "cracker" due to his misunderstanding of something someone said to him, combined with his complete ignorance that the latter word existed in this context at all.  The perpetrator was identified as a hacker in an article he wrote that proliferated nationwide, and just like that the misuse of the word began to proliferate until it is now a kind of dirty secret that everyone regularly misuses the term today.

In order to combat this misuse of terminology a new set of terms were developed using a metaphor referring to the specific color of the hat a subject wears.  A "white hat" hacker refers to an actual hacker in the traditional sense.  A "black hat" hacker is really a cracker.  A "grey hat" hacker is a kind of double agent hacker who is also a "cracker".   Sometimes someone uses tools created by others without understanding them to crack into systems, and there is a term for these unskilled individuals as well: "script kiddies."    I'm taking a SWAG here (Scientific Wild-Ass Guess), but I estimate that at most 1 in 10,000 people actually know all of the above facts, and about 9,990 don't care enough to give it any consideration at all.  If you take nothing else away from what you have read here thus far, bear this point in mind:  Words have power and meaning, and misusing them causes misunderstanding and confusion that has the potential to grow exponentially until the disaster cannot be undone.

Fast forward to today, when the power of words have been used to great effect, all too often toward creating misunderstanding and confusion.  Perhaps the most important word to use moving forward as one reads my writing is the term "conspiracy."  The word is regularly misunderstood, and the misuse and misunderstanding of it is in large part the result of conspiracy.  Conspiracies are real, and the US Government explicitly acknowledges this fact.  For example, the RICO statute (The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act) uses the word properly. Governmental entities don't like organizations that conspire, because they don't like competition.

At this point you might be thinking "oh great, another one of those crazy conspiracy theorists."  If so, you prove another important point, which is this: the first step in keeping the truth secret is discrediting anyone who knows the truth and is willing to tell the secret.  One key method of doing this is creating the idea in the mind of the masses that talking about any conspiracy is an indication that the person talking is crazy.  The word conspiracy is taken to be synonymous with crazy beliefs these days.  It is important to remember that the meaning of the word is something different entirely, and that while plenty of crazy people subscribe to whacked out conspiracy theories, it is the theories that are crazy in those cases, not the idea that there are real conspiracies.  In fact real conspiracies abound in present day society, and the bad actors can be easily identified once they are understood.

The purpose of this short explanation of the importance of words is not to explore any of this in depth however; it is to lay the foundation for further explanation that will involve words that are often misunderstood, either as a result of lack of knowledge or misinformation, regardless of if that misunderstanding is the result of any conspiracy or otherwise.

As you explore my writings in depth you will from time to time read things that sound crazy, and it is my intent to caution you here that at those times you should consider carefully that I am aware that what I write can easily appear crazy, but I'm saying it anyway.  I don't write about what I don't understand, nor do I refer to facts that don't come from solid research. Furthermore, I don't form conclusions that aren't logically formed based upon verifiable evidence. This means that the crazier something I write sounds the more likely it is to be true.

By way of example, as I have written elsewhere, and you have likely read already, circa 1984 I was seen by the people in my home town as a crazy kid that actually believed there would be a computer in every home in the near future. We now know how crazy I was when I told people that this was going to happen.  At the time I knew quite a bit more than most people on the subject, as I was one of very few people, and even fewer teenagers, who had even seen a computer, never mind actually owned one and had experience writing software for them.  I didn't form this conclusion on my own; I had done my research.  It was a prediction I understood that came true, as we all know now, but nobody listens to a person they have labelled crazy.

Before I conclude here I want to offer these important cautionary words.  Don't assume that what I write is right.  Never take my words as dogma.  Use them as springboards to think for yourself.  Do your own research.  If you encounter any evidence to suggest that what I wrote might have errors in it, or be entirely erroneous, I encourage you to challenge my writing. Don't succumb to confirmation bias.  Don't seek to verify what I write, but rather to refute it.  If you can't refute it, only then should you take what I assert to be true.