From ‘For’ to ‘With’: The Slow Corruption of Language

May 12, 2025

Are we rewriting the language… or just corrupting it outright?

There’s a very real difference between an image filmed for IMAX and an image filmed with an IMAX camera — and they know it. They’re counting on the audience not knowing the difference, or not caring. It’s deliberate. It’s ghoulish. And I don’t use that word lightly.

What’s astonishing isn’t just the deception — it’s the arrogance behind it. Hollywood is bleeding out and that's just a given. Ticket sales, trust, cultural relevance. And yet their answer isn’t course correction. It’s manipulation. They slap a trademarked IMAX label on the packaging and call it prestige.

“We own the trademark, so now you owe us the premium.”

Tom Cruise, once the high priest of theatrical fidelity, released a PSA denouncing motion smoothing on televisions.“It ruins the cinematic experience,” he said.¹ And he wasn’t wrong. It made everything look like digital soap opera — like clowns in traditional garb breakdancing to trap beats and calling it “hybrid, high-concept, avant-pop, spectacle!“

Now? He’s fronting for the very illusion he once condemned — only this time, it’s not a TV setting. It’s corporate-approved misdirection. Same illusion. Different lens.

I can’t decide what’s more disturbing — that they’re deceiving the audience, or that they’re doing it by corrupting language itself. A single hyphen — or the lack of one — caused the Mariner 1 rocket's spectacular failure. Precision still matters. Especially when truth is what’s on the line.

What really feels like a punchline is the trailer for the latest Mission: Impossible. Cruise looks straight into the camera and says, “I need you to trust me... one last time.” The irony writes itself. Trust is a fragile currency, and at this point, he’s spending it like it grows back overnight. You’re making it hard, mate — really hard.

This isn’t innovation.
It’s manipulation in a tailored suit.
The audience deserves better — much better.

#language #personal