That probably needs to be updated to either "four decades" or "five decades", depending on when he said it.

I got an interesting story related to this. I once had a student. Good student, former marine, gave good effort in all his work.

But when it came time to write a policy analysis essay, his essay was filled with emotive language rather than rational analysis. I criticized this in a draft, and to his credit he actually pushed back, quite rare for a student. He said there's nothing wrong with what he wrote and he deserved a better grade.

When I explained to him that the language feels emotionally manipulative, and that this would make people like me take it less seriously, he said that was how he had been taught to write persuasive essays in his writing classes.

I had to explain to him that you can be persuasive without being emotionally manipulative. But it gave me some insight into how students are being taught.