A friend advised me recently not to exaggerate the extent of my maladies. I should not “catastrophize,” he said. This word immediately brought to mind how pliant is the English language. One-time verbs become nouns in a heartbeat. A football player who once would have been praised for his toughness is now admired for his physicality. Other somewhat nastier changes are also afoot. Presidents and governors delivering four-letter obscenities in public is now largely accepted, or at the very least tolerated. Unfettered anger is also now commonplace, a subject I will address at another time. Also, America’s love affair with money and profit has made new verbal inroads. To be responsible for something gone amiss is to “own it.” On much of social media, adolescent emotionalism holds the high, or low, ground, with histrionics and hatred often in the scribbled mix. All of which suits an inarticulate president just fine. He can catastrophize at will and delight excited supporters. He’s a straight-talker, and if he wishes to own Greenland (“a very small ask . . . for a piece of ice”) or detain the whole of Minnesota he must be right, and so it is that the New World Order meets new world English. In his social media behavior, the president is astute. He knows how to tap into these raging times, while managing a reality show that never hurts for ratings. His online “Truth” may be anything but, I agree, but oh does he like owning the fiction.