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Words and Phrases that Bug You!


Fragile Bird

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I must be in a bad mood today. If I hear one more person talk about going on 'vacay' I think I'll scream. I actually just used the word sarcastically, commenting on an Air Canada flight that had to make an emergency landing in Madrid because of a blown tire ("Great vacay!").

The bad mood must be coming from watching the Iowa disaster unfold.

Pray tell, what are people saying these days that drives you crazy? I could shake a fist at a few television commercials as well. The off-tune singing in the Peloton commercial, I want to hurl a boot at the tv. Why do they advertise so much in Canada? Is the market that big for over-priced exercise equipment?

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6 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I must be in a bad mood today. If I hear one more person talk about going on 'vacay' I think I'll scream. I actually just used the word sarcastically, commenting on an Air Canada flight that had to make an emergency landing in Madrid because of a blown tire ("Great vacay!").

The bad mood must be coming from watching the Iowa disaster unfold.

Pray tell, what are people saying these days that drives you crazy? I could shake a fist at a few television commercials as well. The off-tune singing in the Peloton commercial, I want to hurl a boot at the tv. Why do they advertise so much in Canada? Is the market that big for over-priced exercise equipment?

I have a horrible habit of using words and phrases that bother people in an ironic way as a way of poking fun at said people, and the people that like to use the grating words. Unfortunately this has the effect of getting both groups annoyed with me. 

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philistines like to say ideology when they mean mere political belief, rather than the correct meaning, false consciousness--except when they signify sloterdijk's enlightened false consciousness, which is a special category readily grasped through context, or perhaps if they intend to suggest socially necessary illusion, because absolutely it can mean this for adherents of the early frankfurt school, or maybe systematically distorted communication, as per habermas, in which case they should make that qualification, and also the foundation for a subject position, standard post-structuralist influenced theory that is difficult to controvert, and then again they may have meant adorno's identity thinking, for which we might forgive them but not forget the imprecision, and of course one can't exempt the exception of semiotic closure, also of derridean pedigree, certainly indeterminate by definition and accordingly foreseeable as a hermeneutic issue here, or, again, the conflation of the phenomenal real and its linguistic expression, an unavoidable problem in the post-kantian situation, and, definitely, the accurate apprehension of contradictions in objective material reality, an inescapable result of having been thrust forth into the world--other than that, the philistines need to focus up.

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3 minutes ago, sologdin said:

philistines like to say ideology when they mean mere political belief, rather than the correct meaning, false consciousness--except when they signify sloterdijk's enlightened false consciousness, which is a special category readily grasped through context, or perhaps if they intend to suggest socially necessary illusion, because absolutely it can mean this for adherents of the early frankfurt school, or maybe systematically distorted communication, as per habermas, in which case they should make that qualification, and also the foundation for a subject position, standard post-structuralist influenced theory that is difficult to controvert, and then again they may have meant adorno's identity thinking, for which we might forgive them but not forget the imprecision, and of course one can't exempt the exception of semiotic closure, also of derridean pedigree, certainly indeterminate by definition and accordingly foreseeable as a hermeneutic issue here, or, again, the conflation of the phenomenal real and its linguistic expression, an unavoidable problem in the post-kantian situation, and, definitely, the accurate apprehension of contradictions in objective material reality, an inescapable result of having been thrust forth into the world--other than that, the philistines need to focus up.

Do you ever worry that not using capital letters may result in people not fully understanding what you’ve written?

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1 minute ago, Stannis Eats No Peaches said:

Do you ever worry that not using capital letters may result in people not fully understanding what you’ve written?

I am pretty sure that solo is well aware of the ee cummings like effect he has on the readers of his posts. Poetry, man. Just poetry. 

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1. "Reach out". This corporatey piece of jargon needs to die. Contact, phone, or email did just fine. I imagine some management consultant probably got paid big bucks telling management to use reach out because it sound oh so kind and caring. What a bunch of baloney.

2. Touch Base. Pretty much as above. Contact or call works just fine.

3. "Multi Task". Another favorite of the corporate world. When I think of multi tasking, I generally think of the jack ass that thinks they can facebook and drive at the same time. Some things actually require your undivided attention. How would you feel if your surgeon tried to "multi task" by doing his taxes  while operating on you?

 

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"Diverse" in reference to one individual.  You can have a diverse group of people, but in a set of size one, all of the members are identical.

And when people get sloppy with usage in general.  Like the headline the other day that said Trump was appointing someone to coordinate human trafficking.  Or another favorite, The March for Cancer.  I kind of want to protest that one.

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27 minutes ago, mcbigski said:

 

And when people get sloppy with usage in general.  Like the headline the other day that said Trump was appointing someone to coordinate human trafficking.  Or another favorite, The March for Cancer.  I kind of want to protest that one.

Sounds like our Home Secretary wanting tougher sentences for counter-terrorists.

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9 hours ago, OldGimletEye said:

3. "Multi Task". Another favorite of the corporate world. When I think of multi tasking, I generally think of the jack ass that thinks they can facebook and drive at the same time. Some things actually require your undivided attention. How would you feel if your surgeon tried to "multi task" by doing his taxes  while operating on you?

 

So only in specific instances right?

It doesn't bug you if I Multi-Task by watching TV with the stereo on? (Because I like to party)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS_OVZtVa4E

 

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10 hours ago, sologdin said:

philistines like to say ideology when they mean mere political belief, rather than the correct meaning, false consciousness--except when they signify sloterdijk's enlightened false consciousness, which is a special category readily grasped through context, or perhaps if they intend to suggest socially necessary illusion, because absolutely it can mean this for adherents of the early frankfurt school, or maybe systematically distorted communication, as per habermas, in which case they should make that qualification, and also the foundation for a subject position, standard post-structuralist influenced theory that is difficult to controvert, and then again they may have meant adorno's identity thinking, for which we might forgive them but not forget the imprecision, and of course one can't exempt the exception of semiotic closure, also of derridean pedigree, certainly indeterminate by definition and accordingly foreseeable as a hermeneutic issue here, or, again, the conflation of the phenomenal real and its linguistic expression, an unavoidable problem in the post-kantian situation, and, definitely, the accurate apprehension of contradictions in objective material reality, an inescapable result of having been thrust forth into the world--other than that, the philistines need to focus up.

I think your first answer, false consciousness is the winner.

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10 hours ago, OldGimletEye said:

1. "Reach out". This corporatey piece of jargon needs to die. Contact, phone, or email did just fine. I imagine some management consultant probably got paid big bucks telling management to use reach out because it sound oh so kind and caring. What a bunch of baloney.

2. Touch Base. Pretty much as above. Contact or call works just fine.

3. "Multi Task". Another favorite of the corporate world. When I think of multi tasking, I generally think of the jack ass that thinks they can facebook and drive at the same time. Some things actually require your undivided attention. How would you feel if your surgeon tried to "multi task" by doing his taxes  while operating on you?

 

Oh, good ones. To add to your list: "tap." Like in, "Trump taps legal heavyweights for defense." I hate it.

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"Adulting" immediately springs to mind.  At my overview defense almost..three years ago, my outside member is this really amazing up and coming scholar, pretty much the same age as me, or close enough to it.  She was about to get married and buying a house.  So I got her on skype for the defense, she's telling me and one of my other committee members about it while we wait, and she's like, "yeah, it's weird, I really feel like I'm adulting now."  Just, why?  Using the term adulting is the only reason I don't think you're becoming a mature adult in a much better and faster way than I am.

Another classic one is "proactive."  If you're saying someone or thing is active, we got it.  No need to put the pro on top of it.  That's just like irregardless.

Back in my undergrad days hanging out with entitled/rich young women, one that really annoyed me was the incessant use of "totes."  In face-to-face conversation and texts.  I guess it's kind of a verbal hiccup or beat we all kind of use - I tend to use "like" or simply "um" - but that one just gets at me.

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22 minutes ago, DMC said:

Another classic one is "proactive."  If you're saying someone or thing is active, we got it.  No need to put the pro on top of it.  That's just like irregardless.

I also have problems with the term proactive. My problem is more with the usage and connotation of the word. I view the term rather negatively, as in action for actions sake, when strictly speaking it means acting before an incident as opposed to reacting to it.

As long as the assumptions of the proactive person are right, that is great. But there's little as annoying as someone guessing your moves and getting it completely wrong. If the intentions are good it only makes it more sad.

 

This probably goes back to my father telling me his favorite quote - "There is no good unless you do it.

(Es gibt nichts Gutes es sei denn, man tut Es.  Erich Kästner)" - which has a lot of truth to it.

I used to counter it with - "The good, this word is true, will always be the evil you don't do.

(Das Gute dieser Satz steht fest, ist stets das Böse das man lässt. Willhelm Busch)" - which is from a poem called Die Fromme Helene, calling out the hypocrisy of the pious.

I think my father was right and I was really dumb, I just don't feel it.

Action brings good fortune ...  Chapter 24, Syd Barrett.

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Judeo-Christian. It's almost always used in a way that just means Christian and the Judeo part really doesn't belong but was just added on for reasons or occasionally in a way where the term Abrahamic would be better, there's really very little Judaism and Christianity have in common that they do not also have with Islam. 

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3 hours ago, DMC said:

"Adulting" immediately springs to mind.  

Ugh! This put me in mind of a series of tv commercials that make me want to gag. BayerUS has a new (well, for months now) corporate PR motto, ‘This is why we science’. Oh geez, no.

3 hours ago, DMC said:

Back in my undergrad days hanging out with entitled/rich young women, one that really annoyed me was the incessant use of "totes."  In face-to-face conversation and texts.  I guess it's kind of a verbal hiccup or beat we all kind of use - I tend to use "like" or simply "um" - but that one just gets at me.

Double ugh! I finally got a new tv this winter and signed in to Amazon Prime, and found to my delight many of the murder mysteries I love are available for viewing. There’s an episode of Death in Paradise where a rich bitch keeps using ‘totes’ and I just wanted to strangle her.

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15 hours ago, OldGimletEye said:

1. "Reach out". This corporatey piece of jargon needs to die. Contact, phone, or email did just fine. I imagine some management consultant probably got paid big bucks telling management to use reach out because it sound oh so kind and caring. What a bunch of baloney.

2. Touch Base. Pretty much as above. Contact or call works just fine.

 

Jesus. These 2 are the absolute worst. I find it unbelievable that people are still saying 'yah yah, lets touch base on that later yah?' unironically in 2020. But they are.

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Languages evolve, so I don't generally have a problem; but... Evolution doesn't mean that words now mean the precise opposite of their actual meaning, so things like:

Literally

I could care less

And then there's the old classic:

AnythingGate

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