Have you ever noticed how we learn about history with increasingly fine and minute periods of study? Isn't that odd? We go from broadly discussing the seemingly snail pace of human advancement ten thousand years ago to splitting the Roman Empire into two periods. Doesn't it feel like more has happened in the last, say, 30 years than any other 30 year period in history? Why?
"He's a common, ignorant slob. He don't even speak good English." - Juror 10
"He doesn't speak good English." - Juror 11
These two lines are from my favorite scene in one of my favorite movies: 12 Angry Men. Juror 10 demeans the defendant and his intelligence, due to his apparent lack of control over the English language. Juror 11, a European immigrant, responds, correcting the grammatical mistake of Juror 10. This moment is played for a joke; the silliness of making a grammatical mistake while criticizing someone for their grammar is obvious. But I think there's something more going on here.