Lake Superior State University (LSSU) has published its annual list of banished words and phrases for 2008, selecting a total of 19 utterances from about 2,000 nominations.
Banning words and phrases isn’t something I endorse. But, some lingo is, like, overused, misused and abused, dude - to the point where even perfectly good figures of speech lose their shape and become out-of-proportion expressions of conformist thought.
You’ll recognize the common expressions on LSSU’s list - locutions like: it is what it is, described by its nominator as a phrase that “accomplishes the dual feat of adding nothing to the conversation while also being phonetically and thematically redundant.”
Give back - a wonderful thing, in reality. In rhetoric, it conveys an obligatory ritual, often for PR purposes, done in all insincerity. It’s enough to make you wanna steal the change from the penny tray on convenience store counters across America, just to bring some balance back to the universe.
Surge - one of many Bush-isms we’ll be dealing with for so long that our children’s kids will come to yearn, with the word’s nominator, for the good ol’ days when surge “referenced storms and electrical power.”
Speaking of the Bush years, another phrase on the list is Post 9/11. Father, forgive me. I’ve used it in this column (though I have openly mocked “the day everything changed” slogan). To atone for my syntactic sins, I’ll submit a few nominations.
When I become president. I know candidates say that to project a contrived sense of confidence of a future they couldn’t possibly be certain about, but we’re electing presidents; not kings or queens. Except in the minds of “unitary executive” fetishists like the present White House regime and their friends on the Supreme Court, presidents don’t get to do whatever the hell they please. Presidential aspirations should be expressed with more honesty and modesty, using phrases like, “my vision is”
Commander-in-chief. Unless you’re in the military, the POTUS isn’t “our commander-in-chief?” Theoretically, the president is an employee of The People (another nominee?). The president is a servant, really. A leader? Yes, but in the biblical sense - lead by serving.
To be frank/honest. When dealing with people who say that routinely, does that mean one should assume they’re lying anytime they don’t preface what they say with “to be frank/honest”? What would Jesus say? (Another nominee?) Let your yes be yes and your no, no.
The mainstream media (MSM). What is the “mainstream media (MSM)?” The national media, for sure. But does it include small, local dailies or weeklies who happen to be owned by corporations? Does it include any news periodical or publication that relies on advertising for its existence? Does it refer to every individual MSM player or the MSM game itself? Is Keith Olbermann, Seymour Hersh or even Jon Stewart part of the “mainstream media?”
Last week, I happened to catch Lou Dobbs on CNN castigating the “mainstream media” for its horse-race election coverage. And I spoke to Lou about it - through the TV screen. “Hey, Lou. News flash: you are the mainstream media, or at least one of the biggest figures in it!”
Bill O’Reilly, Rush - they all do the same thing. They talk about the “mainstream media,” as if they’re not MSM fixtures.
If you’re looking for left-over New Year’s resolutions, why not resolve to identify and avoid using certain unoriginal or uninspired words and phrases - for creativity’s sake - and then submit them to the Lake Superior list keepers: http://www.lssu.edu/banished/submit_word.php.
It won’t change the world but it will help prepare you for an election year sure to be filled with anti-nuance and downright Orwellian language that’ll be buzzing around the political landscape like cicadas.
Sean Gonsalves is an assistant news editor at the Cape Cod Times and a syndicated columnist. E-mail him at sgonsalves@capecodonline.com.
Extrapolating this trend into the not-so-distant future, “Me Tarzan, you Jane”, could carry us through many a millenia.
LSSU might help us all think better if they published all 2000 of the phrases nominated for banishment, rather than just selecting the top 19.
That said, I’m with this author about soft-pedaling all the criticism of MSM–mainstream media–as if any of us knows what that means anyway. We might have a better understanding if we speak of the “prejudiced” media, realizing that both the left (NY Times, CNN, Comedy, CBS) and the right (Rush & Radio, Sean, WSJ, Fox, etc.) have their own versions. There is no “fair and balanced” really, and there is no generic “mainstream.”
I’ve got a few to add:
“Everything’s changed since 9/11″ - BS. Right is still right, and wrong is still wrong. Our leaders are taking supreme advantage of everything 9/11 related.
“They Hate Us For our Freedom” - again, BS. They hate us because we allow and support foreign powers that are bigoted, racist, and that bully the rest of the world.
“Conspiracy Theory/Theorist” - conspiracies happen. For people to paint any dissenting opinions with this brush is McCarthy-ism, plain and simple.
There are so many more… I will go to the Lake Superior list and add several.
I prefer “Ministry of Truth” to “Main Stream Media”
When I become president, all the world will be fed.
When I become president, I’ll have respect for the dead.
When I become president, the moon will be red.
When I become president, I won’t have a big head.
That-ell-be-the-day…..
Off track just a little … As a woman - I would like to see everyone stop using the word “guys” when addressing a mix-gender crowd. Or using it at all!
From Alice Walker: “It has been despairing to see the ease with which women, after over thirty intense years of Feminism, have chosen to erase their gender in language by calling each other, and themselves, “guys.” Are we saying we’re content to be something most of us don’t respect? Conjure up an image of a guy. What attributes does it have? Is that really you? Is this a label you gave yourself? What does being called “guys” do to young women? To little girls? Isn’t the media responsible for making it “cute” to be a guy, as if that’s all the Women’s Movement was about, turning us into neutered men, into guys? For guys don’t have cojones, you know. They are men, but neutered, somehow. So if you’ve turned in your breasts and ovaries for guyness, you’ve really lost out.”
Amen. Now back to regular programming.
I think “Chairman of the Federal Reserve” should be replaced with “Secretary of Inflation”.
I’m a guy who thinks being a guy is OK.
Hey all you gals….do you want to play?
OK, enough cheesy rhymes for the day.
By the way….oh never mind….
Don’t forget where we get our euphemisms, doublespeak, idioms, and all the other vocabulary we use to engage in discourse. The media feeds us a daily diet of words to use when talking. We can even have the ideas that come along with the words. In fact, that’s how it’s designed.
Hoa binh
since1492 - thats why we need to THINK for ourselves rather than let others do it for us. I’m not going to be part of someone else’s “design” unless I know what the objectives are. It helps to have some friends to think with together.
Peace,
Ken Hausle
billjv;
Actually the statement you quoted
“They Hate Us For our Freedom” - again, BS. They hate us because we allow and support foreign powers that are bigoted, racist, and that bully the rest of the world.
Is correct, they hate you for the freedom your government claimed to support those bigoted racist and totalitarian states, as well as the claim by the us gov’t that you have the might and right to bully the rest of the world.
When I become President I issue a signing statement revoking the law of gravity. Bodies at rest will jump up and down and holler. The speed of light will double. This how a true leader addresses the energy problem.
okay, the use of the word “terrorist” in any capacity that does not have to do with actual terrorism really needs to go. the people in guantanamo are not terrorists. they are detainees. maybe some of them are terrorists, but if they never have honest trials, we will never know. and if they are never charged with anything, it is a tough sell that they are not just people who were rounded up for “breathing while muslim.” with the possibility of the passage of the “violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism prevention act” in the senate (as it has passed overwhelming in the house) the word terrorist is about to mean a whole new slew of things. we need to keep an eye on its usage. and lets ditch “war against terror” while we are at it. that’s not what we are fighting at all. its a war of aggression, greed and self importance. among so many other twisted and horrible things.
Is the word “free” on the list yet? Perhaps it should be included since it seems to preface all sorts of properties only of use to corporations, but not the public: Free enterprise, Free markets, Free trade, Free labor, Free exchange, etc., all of use so that corporations may obtain a free lunch.
Here’s my number one nomination - using the term “balls” as a synonym for “courage” or “intitiative” or even “recklessness” and all variations (every single one of which I have either heard in personal conversations, on The Daily Show, or on TV dramas like “Law and Order” or read in articles and posts)including:
“He needs to get some balls.”
“That took a lot of balls.”
“One thing I have to say for you is ‘you’ve got balls.’”
“The only candidate with any balls is (fill in the name).”
Jennifer Tilly hefting two huge bowling balls onto the poker table to show she has “bigger balls” than the men who play.
“Nancy Pelosi has no balls or she would be calling for impeachment.”
My second nomination is related: Use of the word “pussy” and variations thereof as a synonym for “weak.” Examples are:
“You are nothing but a pussy.”
“This must be the pussification of education.”
“All the Democrats in congress are pussies.”
Note that people are said to “HAVE balls,” but they “ARE pussies.”
These highly sexist expressions are not “just figures of speech.” They are indicative of the pervasive notion that men are inherently better than women, that if women want to compete in almost any venue they must become like men (ie. grow some balls) and if men don’t “act like men” they are like women and therefore not as good.
The light beer commercials that depict men being crushed by beer cans because they act considerate, loving, or show emotions are an example of this mind set.
And my third nomination is “politically correct,” which really has so many different meanings for various people it has come to have no meaning at all. It’s especially egregious when used in the phrase, “this is not politically correct, but…” - usually followed by some insensitive or insulting remark. It proposes to make being politically correct more offensive than the actual insult and therefore precludes indignation from the listener (who would also be excessively politically correct if he or she objected).
LeeAnnG - Great Post!
Ken
War?
How about the word “hijack” or “highjack” (they seem to be synonyms). E.g.
Jane hijacked my cell so I can’t make the call.
Someone hijacked the last doughnut.
We could do without that.
I should have known something was wrong when I discovered her pussy was the size of Oklahoma!
My nominations:
at the end of the day
pushing the envelope
But I want to argue against several nominations. I call my buddies “guys” all the time whether they’re all female, mixed, or all male. I disagree with the idea that it denotes males.
And I especially disagree with shooting down the term MSM, even if it isn’t precise. We need to distinguish between the actions of the corporate media, which is absolutely fundamental to the maintenance of the highly destructive paradigm we all are struggling so desperately to change, and outlets such as this one. Is Jon Stewart part of the mainstream media? In my view, yes–when he bolsters the idea that Chavez is a dictator or that Kucinich need not be taken seriously. But when Steven Colbert spoke truth to power (uh oh! another cliche!) at the White House Press Club dinner, serving it up relentlessly into Bush’s face,he earned the right to talk about “balls” for the rest of his life, in my book. But Keith Olbermann and Seymour Hersh appear to me to be speaking the truth as they know it–even if they do publish IN MSM. Are they censored sometimes? I’ll bet they are…
John Doe/Joe Blow, Green Party! Just say no to politicians! We the People can govern ourselves by online grassroots thank you very much.
LEE ANN: right on!
DANIEL DAVID: Do you really think there is LEFT media in the MSM? Give me a break! They may be slightly left of the extreme right center the national dialog has been forced into by the buy out of major media by corporate sponsors who profit from a neo-con and/or conservative ethos.
MWILDFIRE: Adapting the language of patriarchy in no way liberates you from its sexist undertones or subtext. That’s like the sexy female smoking as the ad reads, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” Sure. Now you can get cancer of the lungs just like the big boys. Cool.
‘Jihadist’, a columnist used it yesterday, supposedly he was a regular guy, sorry, Jihad in the Qur’an and Shari’ah are not what the Wahhabi, Sharia Saudis and many Shi’i invented, not the term Jihadist, but how we take what men invented, not what al-Islam is or what the Qur’an says at all. I truly wish people would read, in this case books on World Religions.
There is no such thing as a Jihadist, it is a bushism.
“Obviously”, when it most certainly isn’t. Grrrrr
Letter to all the middle school graduates,
I’m getting sick of ersatz German terms like Schadenfreude and uber-anything.
Please stop using penultimate as though it meant anything other than next-to-last.
Do everyone a favour and ditch oxymoron! It’s a poetic device with a specific purpose and effect, not a mere contradiction in terms.
Please educate yourself on the difference between sarcasm and irony.
You’ve come a long way, baby.”
But note we are still calling you baby, no matter how far you’ve come.
Note, also, that we are making the judgment, not you.
And we think smoking is a great accomplishment for women.
“both the left (NY Times, CNN, Comedy, CBS.”
Thanks siouxrose : Best to read the preceding posts before adding your own . Left/right is as meaningless as up and down in the universe . Americans have difficulty getting their tongues affirmatively or even negatively around that adjective “socialist” that Europeans talk about and practise with familiarity as they do with wine and multi-linguistic panache .
It is more meaningful and truthful to use the more stark terms of socialist/capitalist when describing various regimes . Both could be ruled by a “unitary decider” and both could be completely devoid of human rights .
If we go back to the original meaningless expression , “left/right” , Europeans : French , Scandanavian , Spanish … after being ruled for centuries by despotic or enlightened monarchs and suffered many revolutions,have wisely decided that socialism works best for education , healthcare,infrastructure while capitalism works best for manufacturing . The job of government is to support both equally and keep them separate.
Let’s hope that Americans can learn how to make this hybrid work effectively in a shorter time than it took France to learn it.
“Spike”. Named after a big ugly nail, it would properly describe a sudden increase, followed by a sudden decrease, and would look like a big ugly nail sticking up out of a graph. It’s used liberally to describe any increase in anything bad, to falsely convey a sense that the increase is only temporary. How about that “spike” in oil prices, or mortgage defaults? Same with “Surge”.
“Inflation”. A term that was intended to describe increases in the supply of money. Rising Prices is a result of inflation, stemming from the reduced value of money after it’s supply has been increased. “CPI” is neither a measure of inflation, nor a measure of price increases. It’s a custom number arrived at by considering a number of obscure imported items like stereos, TV, RAM, and low-end textiles. If you live somewhere, and eat food, the price increases you experience will be much more in line with the proper inflation rate (8% in Canada, ~14% in the US) than with the CPI at two, three, or god forbid maybe 4 percent.
“liquidity injection”? More like trickle-down counterfeiting. And quite inflationary, I might add.
Ronald - “…have wisely decided that socialism works best for education , healthcare,infrastructure while capitalism works best for manufacturing . The job of government is to support both equally and keep them separate.”
Absolutely, glaringly, patently true. They’ve been giving out Nobel prizes to parties who have quantified this obvious thing. Lots of examples of the wisdom of this exist in the world.
In any quest for global domination, neither system is acceptable, as neither enslaves anyone nor directs wealth to the architects. Which brings up the term “Ownership Society”. Now there’s a term that carries it’s overtones on it’s sleeve.
At least most people have stopped prefacing every sentence with BASICALLY. I thought would never hear the end of that affectation.