What I really find frightening is that our accents are disappearing. I grew up speaking with the the Scotts inspired Virginia accent.
This part of the state was settled largely by Scotts who were either brought over on the prison ships or immigrated later.
I love the old accents that were part of our national heritage. They haven’t disappeared completely but in another generation only the deep South and upper North East will have distinguishable accents. Even the dreaded NYC accent has been toned down.
As to writing I see it as a symphony of words telling a story. Most of the time cutting too many words out is like cutting the flute section out of the show. The story is still somewhat told but too much is missing. It’s like heavy petting with no payoff! Just plain unsatisfying.
Can you imagine an editor telling Winston Churchill to cut half of his History of WW2?
Telling Mark Twain to cut 1/3 of his writing?
Telling William Shakespeare his plays were too wordy?
Only in a dumbed down society is a paucity of words in writing considered good. We are there.
Now they aren’t rewriting history, they want to stop teaching it completely.