The English language appears to be dying, in the USA at least. It is on the way to being replaced by a kind of gibberish in which the speaker assumes no responsibility for being able to convey any kind of coherent message but assigns the blame to the listener for failing to read what passes for a mind of the speaker. “Don’t be so picky, you know what I mean,” is the general response to anyone pointing out the absurd lack of meaning in what is said. It is amazing that someone who is unable to say what he means presumes to blame the listener for not knowing what he means, assuming that he had any real meaning in mind to begin with. I long for the sort of serious conversation that used to be possible but seems nearly as extinct as the passenger pigeon lately.
It’s even worse when it does have meaning!
Recently I was asked “how can an opinion be a lie”? I was flabbergasted. This person had stated an opinion about another person’s position that clearly was wrong, I said it was a lie. That person had done the same to me a few times. So I told him, “an opinion is a lie when it is not true”. Then a man from Scotland chimed in and said that a lie is an untruth told with malice - that an innocent untruth told without intent to harm is not a lie. Wow. The problem is compounded when people act as if they know better what others think than those others do themselves. When they are called on it they say “that was just my opinion, how can an opinion be wrong”. The burden of proof becomes yours - they then demand that you prove their opinion of your position is wrong.
I’ve found that when coherence leaves a conversation the best solution is to walk away.