Do you find that these are highly Effective? Does calling the Enemy INSURGENTS as oppose to REBELS make an impact? Any other WORD Switches stick out for you? The one that got me was when there was a MOVEMENT to change Suicide Bomber to HOMICIDE BOMBER. It was on every TV Station . . every News Cast It was so blatant and pervasive. and almost as pathetic as FREEDOM FRIES Rocket River
Terrorist and freedom Fighter. Is one that I hate. And yes it does have a very large influence on the perspective of the general public. It is acually pretty sad the amount of effect it has.
its funny that that political correctness gets attacked from both sides, of course being black I kind find examples of words that aren't acceptable where the change is generally regarded as a good thing
This made me think of a George Carlin monologue about the evolution of the word shell shocked: "In the first world war, that condition was called Shell Shock. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables, Shell Shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves. That was seventy years ago. Then a whole generation went by and the second world war came along and very same combat condition was called Battle Fatigue. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to hurt as much. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell Shock! Battle Fatigue. Then we had the war in Korea, 1950. Madison avenue was riding high by that time, and the very same combat condition was called Operational Exhaustion. Hey, were up to eight syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase. It's totally sterile now. Operational exhaustion. Sounds like something that might happen to your car. Then of course, came the war in Viet Nam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years, and thanks to the lies and deceits surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Still eight syllables, but we've added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I'll bet you if we'd of still been calling it Shell Shock, some of those Viet Nam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I'll betcha. I'll betcha." George Carlin
One man's "family values" is another man's "hey, how'd I end up at this gay bar wearing assless chaps?"
Doh! Too many words and I skimmed right over it. OK, how about this one from George: "You can't really say 'Balls' on TV, unless, it's in the context of a sport. For instance, you might hear Curt Gowdy say, "Roberto Clemente has two balls on him!" BUT, you'll never hear him say, "I think he hurt his balls on that play...don't you?...He's holding em' by God!"
Carlin was a genius. It's a shame he isn't around now. Words matter and no profession plays with them more dishonestly than politics and the political game.
