Bullsh*t words/expressions that have got to go! 2020 Edition

 

Bullsh*t, non-English expressions that make people irredeemable to me as soon as they use one. Their original English language meanings have been distorted beyond recognition, and in many cases they now exude that unctuous quality that Our Overlords use to conceal their insidious totalitarianism.

No free thinker as defined as such in 2020 should ever use these cringeworthy expressions. They belong to the mob.

Feel free to add. We need a complete list. I am sick of:

validate

platform, especially as in “give a platform to”

share

problematic

move forward

reach out

story/stories 

conversation

inclusive (x 1000000000!!)

diverse/diversity

community/communities

privilege

listen

support

ally

voice(s)

brown

I am actually tempted to add “white” and “Black.”

Those definitely don’t mean what they actually are.

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  1. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    Caryn (View Comment):

    Each of those words can be used in a sentence (I was working on a very long one using most of them–it had to do with a conversation between neighbors in a gated community as to whether or not to validate tickets for guest parking…etc). But, yes, in the currently used contexts…hanging offense. Okay, I’d settle for public flogging.

    Some of the others suggested in comments truly have no reasonable context and should be stricken.

    Then there are the ones that just grate: “Grow” as in the economy, or a budget, or anything but crops. Aaargh! And “impact” used as a verb. Aaargh!!

    This one is probably thoroughly lost, but I’d really like to have “gay” back. And for rainbows to be benign and pretty instead of a political statement (have you noticed there’s now a brown–and sometimes a black one, too– stripe at top of the rainbow flag? Special, since black and brown can be mixed from rainbow colors, yet now have to have their own stripes; I guess they matter more).

    All true. “Grow” and “impact” as a verb (a similar fate has met “gift”, which is now a dreadful word!)  

    We need to form a Committee of Public Safety – didn’t Chaz have one? and consign users of these words to the trash bin of history.

    I used to be a liberal and even I recall a twinge of regret at the “appropriation” of “gay.”

    • #61
  2. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    I have one. It’s not a prefix or a suffix. I request the aid of elementary school teachers everywhere:

    Adding an “x” INSIDE a word to make words like “latinx” or “womxn”.

    Ricochet should have a Glossary for Deplorables and Fascists. It could be of service to those of us without Ivy League degrees.

    • #62
  3. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    Dotorimuk (View Comment):

    I don’t like it when Marxist words and phrases are used by non-Marxists:

    class

    proletariat

    the masses

    Do they use “masses”? How weird. There is no collective identity for anything anymore. Anything is what it wants to be. Except Rachel Dolezal can’t be black, and Peter Thiel isn’t really gay.

    • #63
  4. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Personnel used to mean Persons. Human Resources doesn’t mean Persons, it means something more generic and distant, a species of animal. And Resources is even more dehumanizing; it doesn’t even necessarily refer to an animal; and is even rapacious, like digging a mine from which you take all the ore out and leaving a big hole in the ground.

    Now we are into Corporate language. We will have to add “Thought leader.”

    • #64
  5. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    I have a particular antipathy to the term “influencer.”

    Goodness, YES. Kim Jung un should just finish us off. It’s been a good run.

    • #65
  6. Caryn Thatcher
    Caryn
    @Caryn

    Tocqueville (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    I particular dislike:

    • person of color
    • underrepresented minority
    • historically marginalized people
    • cisgendered
    • heteronormative

    Ah yes “MARGINALIZED”. How could we forget?

    We Need to Have a Conversation About “cis” because it is not a word in the English language!

    Cis is a word in the English language.  Or at least it’s a term used in organic chemistry.  It’s the opposite of trans, another org chem term, so I guess that’s where it originates.  Oddly, though, their real meanings in structural terms do not conform to the way they’re used by the “woke.”  Of course they don’t!  Give them a tiny bit of education, ie. that cis and trans are opposites, and they’ll extrapolate it all out of context and reality.  Here‘s a bit on the context (scroll down to the diagrams).

    • #66
  7. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    Caryn (View Comment):

    Tocqueville (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    I particular dislike:

    • person of color
    • underrepresented minority
    • historically marginalized people
    • cisgendered
    • heteronormative

    Ah yes “MARGINALIZED”. How could we forget?

    We Need to Have a Conversation About “cis” because it is not a word in the English language!

    Cis is a word in the English language. Or at least it’s a term used in organic chemistry. It’s the opposite of trans, another org chem term, so I guess that’s where it originates. Oddly, though, their real meanings in structural terms do not conform to the way they’re used by the “woke.” Of course they don’t! Give them a tiny bit of education, ie. that cis and trans are opposites, and they’ll extrapolate it all out of context and reality. Here‘s a bit on the context (scroll down to the diagrams).

    Goes under “science” then… I should educate myself and listen.

    • #67
  8. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Tocqueville (View Comment):
    We Need to Have a Conversation About “cis” because it is not a word in the English language! 

    I’m not sure if you’d consider it part of the English language, but cisalpine just means on this side of the Alps.

    • #68
  9. Richard Easton Coolidge
    Richard Easton
    @RichardEaston

    Tocqueville (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Personnel used to mean Persons. Human Resources doesn’t mean Persons, it means something more generic and distant, a species of animal. And Resources is even more dehumanizing; it doesn’t even necessarily refer to an animal; and is even rapacious, like digging a mine from which you take all the ore out and leaving a big hole in the ground.

    Now we are into Corporate language. We will have to add “Thought leader.”

    I was just about to decry “thought leader”. Anyone who uses “impactful” should be  executed immediately. It would be too merciful to wait until dawn.

    • #69
  10. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    Richard Easton (View Comment):

    Tocqueville (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Personnel used to mean Persons. Human Resources doesn’t mean Persons, it means something more generic and distant, a species of animal. And Resources is even more dehumanizing; it doesn’t even necessarily refer to an animal; and is even rapacious, like digging a mine from which you take all the ore out and leaving a big hole in the ground.

    Now we are into Corporate language. We will have to add “Thought leader.”

    I was just about to decry “thought leader”. Anyone who uses “impactful” should be executed immediately. It would be too merciful to wait until dawn,

    The worst is that you can hear conservatives using, a bit sheepishly, some of these expressions and words.

    If conservatives refused to use these expressions, it would be better politically for them, I’m convinced. You’re not invited to the party anyway! Take no prisoners! 

    • #70
  11. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    Fritz (View Comment):

    To “reimagine” policing, or whatever.

    Another abomination: “educational justice” as in

    “those at the greatest distance from educational justice” will be the top priority to be allowed to return to in-person school when the pandemic eases — (I just read this on my grandson’s school district’s plan to reopen in the fall).

     

    My children’s public school in France partially reopened on May 11 for the children of “necessary workers”. Obviously not for my kids then, as their parents are deeply “unnecessary”, except for paying for everything. 

    • #71
  12. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    thelonious (View Comment):

    “Positivity” drives me crazy. I don’t know if it’s a real word but it sounds idiotic to me when I hear it.

    Excellent. It’s a “positive” word which includes a backhanded swipe at non-initiated.

    • #72
  13. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    The Elephant in the Room (View Comment):

    The one that drives me up the wall is “[my/your/his/her/their] truth,” as in, “This is my truth,” or, “That’s your truth.” That idea of subjective truth is the essence of both a bullsh!t phrase and a horsesh!t phrase. There is no such thing as “my truth” or “your truth” – there is only the truth.

    Two examples:

    “The sun rises in the east.”
    As east is defined, this is always true. It can be measured by instruments, and is acknowledged as a fact. This is objective truth.

    “Sunrise is the best time of day.”
    This cannot be measured or determined as an objective truth in anyway. This is a wholly subjective statement.

    “Well, sunrise is the best time of day. That’s my truth.”
    The only truth to that statement is that the speaker holds that subjective belief. There is a word for that: It is an opinion.

    So many people use the “[my/your/his/her/their] truth” phrase to imbue their personal perspectives this aura of infallibility, as if these are beliefs that are so important that they cannot be challenged. But they’re just opinions. And they’re almost always infantile, asinine, ones that wouldn’t stand up to a lick of scrutiny were they not protected behind that wall of psychotherapy babble known as “This is my truth.”

    Ze/Zir Truth. 🤣

    • #73
  14. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    Flicker (View Comment):

    “Our corporate culture contains a vision of investment in sustainable, renewable and responsible human resourcing” is sooo 2019.

    Corporate culture is pretty bad. I mean doesn’t that just mean or used to mean “professional”? Or is professional now exiled to the dust bin of history?

    maybe we add culture ? Like as in rape culture, a concept which never existed before say 2009.

    • #74
  15. JamesSalerno Inactive
    JamesSalerno
    @JamesSalerno

    Flicker (View Comment):

    An what is it with the magic word “agency”? What does it mean? Freedom? Freedom to take responsibility and to decide for oneself?

    Agency means someone is living their life constructively and with a purpose. They build relationships with people. They build families and friendships as opposed to allies and ideology. They also produce economically. Starting businesses, creating new products, inventing, etc. 

    It’s actually a good term to describe what the left lacks. No agency and purpose in life leads to nihilism. That’s how you get feral, destructive animals running amok.

    • #75
  16. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Tocqueville (View Comment):

    Stad (View Comment):

    Tocqueville: I am actually tempted to add “white” and “Black.”

    You forget to capitalize “White”, you grammar racist. Hehe . . .

    White isn’t capitalized. Black is. That’s the subtlety of it. No Ivy League University for you, Sir!

    Now that I think about it, capitalized “Black” has got to go, execpt cases were it was previously grammatically correct . . .

    • #76
  17. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Tocqueville (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Personnel used to mean Persons. Human Resources doesn’t mean Persons, it means something more generic and distant, a species of animal. And Resources is even more dehumanizing; it doesn’t even necessarily refer to an animal; and is even rapacious, like digging a mine from which you take all the ore out and leaving a big hole in the ground.

    Now we are into Corporate language. We will have to add “Thought leader.”

    Yes, that’s a particularly smarmy designation, isn’t it.  I think even that has been changed to the moderately more acceptable “public intellectual”.

    • #77
  18. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Caryn (View Comment):

    Tocqueville (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    I particular dislike:

    • person of color
    • underrepresented minority
    • historically marginalized people
    • cisgendered
    • heteronormative

    Ah yes “MARGINALIZED”. How could we forget?

    We Need to Have a Conversation About “cis” because it is not a word in the English language!

    Cis is a word in the English language. Or at least it’s a term used in organic chemistry. It’s the opposite of trans, another org chem term, so I guess that’s where it originates. Oddly, though, their real meanings in structural terms do not conform to the way they’re used by the “woke.” Of course they don’t! Give them a tiny bit of education, ie. that cis and trans are opposites, and they’ll extrapolate it all out of context and reality. Here‘s a bit on the context (scroll down to the diagrams).

    I thought that cis- was just a prefix.

    • #78
  19. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    JamesSalerno (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    An what is it with the magic word “agency”? What does it mean? Freedom? Freedom to take responsibility and to decide for oneself?

    Agency means someone is living their life constructively and with a purpose. They build relationships with people. They build families and friendships as opposed to allies and ideology. They also produce economically. Starting businesses, creating new products, inventing, etc.

    It’s actually a good term to describe what the left lacks. No agency and purpose in life leads to nihilism. That’s how you get feral, destructive animals running amok.

    So then who’s the agent for whom?

    • #79
  20. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    And using uplift as a verb.  As it, “We have to uplift our community.  It will uplift everyone.”  That’s a new one: community tectonics.

    • #80
  21. The Elephant in the Room Member
    The Elephant in the Room
    @ElephasAmericanus

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Personnel used to mean Persons. Human Resources doesn’t mean Persons, it means something more generic and distant, a species of animal. And Resources is even more dehumanizing; it doesn’t even necessarily refer to an animal; and is even rapacious, like digging a mine from which you take all the ore out and leaving a big hole in the ground.

    “Human resources” is a very pernicious phrase: It demonstrates a view of the employees in a company that is the same as money (capital resources), goods and real estate (physical resources), intellectual property (information resources), etc. People are just another item in the toolbox, just another column in the ledger. One can mark a major shift in the American workplace when “personnel” departments transitioned to “human resources.”

    • #81
  22. The Elephant in the Room Member
    The Elephant in the Room
    @ElephasAmericanus

    Tocqueville (View Comment):

    Now we are into Corporate language. We will have to add “Thought leader.”

    “Thought leader”? Good God Almighty. That sounds like something straight out of the Cultural Revolution…

    “Destroy the Four Olds! Black Lives Matter!”

    • #82
  23. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    The Elephant in the Room (View Comment):

    Tocqueville (View Comment):

    Now we are into Corporate language. We will have to add “Thought leader.”

    “Thought leader”? Good God Almighty. That sounds like something straight out of the Cultural Revolution…

    “Destroy the Four Olds! Black Lives Matter!”

    Are you still in the work force? Do you live on a peaceful tundra somewhere in a house you built with your own two hands? “Thought leader” is everywhere, especially in the corporate world, and it never ceases to send chills up my back.

    • #83
  24. BettyRubble Inactive
    BettyRubble
    @Cindy Higgins

    I still hate “fair share” and “surreal.”  Now, most recently, “woke.”  

    • #84
  25. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    BettyRubble (View Comment):

    I still hate “fair share” and “surreal.” Now, most recently, “woke.”

    Surreal, adj., used to describe by Trump-haters and liberals to describe the experience of having a President whose speciality is brutally and indelicately exposing people who are getting away with lying and/or hypocrisy.

    See priggish.

    • #85
  26. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    Here’s some good ones that I forgot: 

    sustainable 

    renewable(s) 

    green

     

    • #86
  27. DrewInWisconsin, Unhelpful Communicator Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Unhelpful Communicator
    @DrewInWisconsin

    The verb “ask” used as a noun.

    Or, to use it as our local public health experts are using it: “Our ask is that you social distance and wear a face covering.”

    On that subject, I never want to hear “new normal” again.

    Also “tick tock,” as in “What’s the tick tock on this project?” (Which I think means something like timeline or estimated time or something, but I’m not entirely sure, because I don’t see it used with any sort of consistency.)

    I swear I will strangle the next person who uses “tick tock” like that.

    • #87
  28. Headedwest Coolidge
    Headedwest
    @Headedwest

    Bob W (View Comment):

    One thing I’ve noticed recently when commentators or pundits or reporters are saying whatever they say… They’ll be speaking an English sentence that contains a foreign word, such as a word in Spanish.( I think I’ve heard it in Spanish most of all). When they speak that foreign word within the sentence, they adopt the foreign accent for that word, and then immediately switch back to the English/American accent for the rest of the sentence. It really jumps out at you and hurts my ears. Has anyone else noticed this? It’s definitely new, and obviously some kind of a virtue signaling or “I’m smarter than you” thing.

    This was big back when I still listened to some NPR stations.

    • #88
  29. Headedwest Coolidge
    Headedwest
    @Headedwest

    This entire conversation is making me feel unsafe.

    • #89
  30. Fritz Coolidge
    Fritz
    @Fritz

    Headedwest (View Comment):

    Bob W (View Comment):

    One thing I’ve noticed recently when commentators or pundits or reporters are saying whatever they say… They’ll be speaking an English sentence that contains a foreign word, such as a word in Spanish.( I think I’ve heard it in Spanish most of all). When they speak that foreign word within the sentence, they adopt the foreign accent for that word, and then immediately switch back to the English/American accent for the rest of the sentence. It really jumps out at you and hurts my ears. Has anyone else noticed this? It’s definitely new, and obviously some kind of a virtue signaling or “I’m smarter than you” thing.

    This was big back when I still listened to some NPR stations.

    “Nee-ko — raaaaa[breathy interval here] ‘hua”  was big with NPR in the 80s.

     

    • #90
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