Language Police

[Ajax]

Language Police

WTF?

[Dr Mordrid]

Don't ask. My wife is a teacher and you wouldn't believe what's going on in both lesson plans (such as they are) and textbooks.

And people wonder why home schooling is taking off like a rocket...

Dr. Mordrid

[Ajax]

Who decides what is "proper" for my children to learn?

[Topha]

I knew it. I just knew. Finally everyone is getting crazy, supported by our governments.

I know some of you may not find this funny, but I certainly do.

[Brian R.]

'The Older Person and the Water'

LOL

[High_Jumbllama]

What about religious schools?

"Hell" has to be available there.

[HedsSpaz]

I don't find this funny in the least. Scary most definately, but hardly funny. Every time I see something like this the frightening potential of Orwell's vision of the future becomes a step closer to reality. Lets hope that current and subsequent generations wake up and start to react against foolishness like this.

Ian

[Dr Mordrid]

Your Orwellian reference is very appropriate. One huge problem in many districts is the re-wording of books and textbooks to eliminiate words or concepts that aren't PC from one point of view or another.

Since the pressure for this is coming from both political extremes you end up with literary mush.

Dr. Mordrid

[Strahd]

That reminds me of George Carlin:



For some reason, it just keeps getting worse. I'll give you an example of that. There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum. Can't take anymore input. The nervous system has either (click) snapped or is about to snap. 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.

But. But, it didn't happen, and one of the reasons. One of the reasons is because we were using that soft language. That language that takes the life out of life. And it is a function of time. It does keep getting worse. I'll give you another example. Sometime during my life. Sometime during my life, toilet paper became bathroom tissue. I wasn't notified of this. No one asked me if I agreed with it. It just happened. Toilet paper became bathroom tissue. Sneakers became running shoes. False teeth became dental appliances. Medicine became medication. Information became directory assistance. The dump became the landfill. Car crashes became automobile accidents. Partly cloudy bacame partly sunny. Motels became motor lodges. House trailers became mobile homes. Used cars became previously owned transportation. Room service became guest-room dining. And constipation became occasional irregularity. When I was a little kid, if I got sick they wanted me to go to the hospital and see a doctor. Now they want me to go to a health maintenance organization...or a wellness center to consult a healthcare delivery professional. Poor people used to live in slums. Now the economically disadvantaged occupy substandard housing in the inner cities. And they're broke! They're broke! They don't have a negative cash-flow position. They're ****ing broke! Cause a lot of them were fired. You know, fired. management wanted to curtail redundancies in the human resources area, so many people are no longer viable members of the workforce.

Smug, greedy, well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It's as simple as that. The CIA doesn't kill anybody anymore, they neutralize people...or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation. The pentagon actually measures nuclear radiation in something they call sunshine units. Israeli murderers are called commandos. Arab commandos are called terrorists. Contra killers are called freedom fighters. Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part of it to us, do they? Never mention that part of it.


And



But, when it comes to changing the language, I think they make some good points, because we do think in language and so the quality of our thoughts and ideas could only be as good as the quality of our language. So maybe some of this patriarcho shit ought to go away. I think spokesman ought to be spokesperson. I think chairman ought to be chairperson. I think mankind ought to be human kind, but they take it too far, they take themselves too seriously, they exaggerate. They want me to call that thing in the street a personhole cover. I think that's taking it a little bit too far. What would you call a lady's man, a person's person? That would make a He-man an It-person. Little kids would be afraid of the boogieperson. They'd look up in the sky and see the person in the moon. Guys would say come back here and fight like a person. And we'd all sing "for it's a jolly good person." That's the kind of thing you would hear on late-night with David Letterperson.

[Kooldino]

Originally posted by Brian R.
'The Older Person and the Water'

LOL

LOL.

[Kooldino]

Strahd - LOL, i love that last paragraph!

[Jon P. Inghram]

I wonder how long before they ban 1984 from public libraries?

[High_Jumbllama]

WTF! I just thought of this. How the **** can you ban the word "old"? That must outlaw all history textbooks? Are the words modern and young banned as well? Absolute ****ing morons. I am not trying to be funny with my word choices. It's jsut what came to mind.

[High_Jumbllama]

Originally posted by Strahd
That reminds me of George Carlin:



. . . *Snip* . . .

But, when it comes to changing the language, I think they make some good points, because we do think in language and so the quality of our thoughts and ideas could only be as good as the quality of our language. So maybe some of this patriarcho shit ought to go away. I think spokesman ought to be spokesperson. I think chairman ought to be chairperson. I think mankind ought to be human kind, but they take it too far, they take themselves too seriously, they exaggerate. They want me to call that thing in the street a personhole cover. I think that's taking it a little bit too far. What would you call a lady's man, a person's person? That would make a He-man an It-person. Little kids would be afraid of the boogieperson. They'd look up in the sky and see the person in the moon. Guys would say come back here and fight like a person. And we'd all sing "for it's a jolly good person." That's the kind of thing you would hear on late-night with David Letterperson.

Exactly! I could not agree more.

Accuracy has been completely taken over by sanitation. War, genocide, "shell shock", etc . . . should sound traumatic. They are. We should be afraid so we know they are traumatic and to avoid them in the future.

[Strahd]

So you would have to ban old, ancient, decrepid, senile etc.