Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
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.
Published in General
I hate it when someone starts a sentence with “Question.” Don’t they think I’ll know it’s a question by the structure of the sentence? The rising inflection at the end is a dead giveaway.
You mean “smart.” :-)
President Obama: “Pockyston”
Saturday Night Live spoofed that well with Victoria Jackson during some Weekend Update segments.
I understand why people read quotes by starting “Quote: . . .” so you know where the quote starts.
But I know people who write that initial “Quote” also. Which is dumb. That’s what the quote marks are for.
I also hate it when someone begins every statement with “So . . .”
This I also hear among the supposedly-educated on NPR.
This is amazingly hard for people to grasp.
Although it’s a good one to keep in your pocket and ready to use. For example, when victimhood culture is complaining again, you get to respond “What? You have no agency?” and it sets them back a moment.
I remember when that started (though not the year). It was deliberate. “Um” and “like” were used as placeholders in a sentence while someone collected his thoughts about what to say next. But they sounded stupid, so people were actually taught when speaking to get into the habit of substituting the word “so” for “like”. Like any other linguistic change to avoid a stigma, the new word has come to appear as stupid as the previous.
Actually, I think the better and simpler word is “autonomy”, isn’t it?
Perhaps, but then you don’t get to use their own overused words against them. : )
People were actually taught this?
Burn down the universities!
Except “autonomy” has 4 syllables instead of 3, which violates the “simpler is better” premise of this discussion; and “agency” has the added benefit of using one of “their own” words against them.
Saying you believe in truth is basically coming out of the closet as a conservative. I have a woke colleague who likes to say wisely “everything is relative.” Because she’s Very Tolerant and Openminded, except about White People and Americans and America. Then things aren’t so “relative” anymore
When I hear that something is going to be uplifting, I am almost sure that I will find it depressing.
In the interests of public safety we may need to eliminate “I feel”. Anyone who begins a sentence this way should immediately meet with a turned back. There’s far to much feeling these days.
I say that myself a lot. Bad! We can say “I think” and it’s much more assertive and honest. You can’t disagree with people’s feelings which is why “I feel” is meant to shut people up.
Two more:
identify as
and…
I know there may be some upset feelings among Trumpians and Ricochet people, friendly Midwesterners and Southerners…
but we need to face up to the fact that folk or folks has been ill-used recently to inject a falsely folksy, friendly, even populist quality to concepts that are not (as yet, God help us) popular, like trans.
Ex: Trans folk, Non-binary folk, Black folk, disabled folk…
Users of the term in the aforementioned senses are not folksy or friendly.
Note: When in large coastal metropolises, do not use folks by itself in the original native sense. In that setting it is only acceptable when coupled with a random (extremely) marginal (read marginalized) group.
Also couple men with folk to make menfolk at your own risk.
But agency takes longer to say and has that complex Ay-ee-djen (see). To say it fast you have to say it: eh zhen see.
Besides, -tonomy is I believe technically one syllable.
It takes you longer to say “agency” than “autonomy?”
I’m sorry to hear that.
Well, one can always slur the word agency, but autonomy just rolls so off the tongue.
I have a new one: affirm
As used in this infuriating sentence I found (no need for context: the same thing happens every 11 seconds):
One activist told me that for him, safety requires other people to affirm him.
“Broken!” Everything is “broken”. Government is broken (more properly put, usurped). Medical insurance is broken (more properly put, chaotic). Immigration policy is broken (more properly put, unenforced). The judicial system is broken (more properly put, legislating from the bench). The environment is broken (more properly put, global climate change). The current tax system is broken (more properly put, too complex for experts to understand).
You know what’s broken? My left great toe. A tile in by bathroom floor. And my espresso machine.
Yes. Broken is very good. Maybe I should be really editing my original list to make an actual glossary.
Tacitly taught it. My dad was on my case about “like”. Could it be that “so” is “like” for NPR types?
What’s next? La? Followed by Ti? And then back to Do?
This teaching and the explanation for it was discussed on television, so it had a degree of formalization. It was of the nature as how to dress, speak and conduct yourself professionally.
I don’t like it when they’re used by Marxists, either
Stakeholder.
Update: unless there’s an actual bet involved or your last name is Van Helsing.
I got all the way to your comment, comment number 39, without my head hurting.
But the phrase “those at the greatest distance from educational justice” scrambled my grey matter into a conniption fit.
I have no idea what educational justice might be. But I have a very bad feeling that any child inside the school district that employed the person who wrote that phrase will not be getting any.