Things I liked, Tuesday

The Economist on language complexity: "Tuyuca requires verb-endings on statements to show how the speaker knows something. Diga ape-wi means that “the boy played soccer (I know because I saw him)”, while diga ape-hiyi means “the boy played soccer (I assume)”. English can provide such information, but for Tuyuca that is an obligatory ending on the verb."

Tyler Cowen argues that "When it comes to views about the relevant forms of diversity, the views of non-Democrats are more diverse than the views of Democrats... A non-Democrat is more likely to focus on something other than racial and ethnic diversity, compared to a Democrat. Correctly or not, many Americans do not think racial and ethnic diversity is the diversity that should command so much attention.  That is one place to start for understanding why so many 2012 Obama voters switched to Trump."

Mike Konczal learns from Trump in retrospect. Good piece. "Trump talked about jobs. All the time... What were Clinton’s three things to benefit workers? There was policy everywhere, but none of it clear for voters... Trump never mentions poverty... He talks about wages, full stop... For all the money and tech, they [the Clinton campaign] didn’t know their blue wall was much less safe from the people on the ground than the polling numbers in Brooklyn HQ would see. Something broke down there and it’s urgent to understand why."

Terri Gross interviews Cleve Jones. Both tremendously sad and impressive, mostly on the history of the LGBT movement, including how AIDS shaped the fight for gay marriage.

Undone on the riots against disco, an early shot in the culture wars, and the advent of contemporary pop.