Sound and fury
All right, I suppose it’s somewhat inevitable but, oh lordy, all this bombastic noise, noise, noise, bad rhetoric, cheap semantics, codswallop, doubletalk, hypocrisy, the maiming and whoring of the language…
All these sheep and their wilful eyes begging for wool, the puerile level of discourse. Name-calling, bullying, candy-coated, holy-watered promises of annihilation, and nyah, nyah, I’m not going to be your friend anymore.
If I hear or read Valiant Strike, friendly fire, shock and awe, Operation Iraqi Freedom, ad hominem attack, WMD, moral authority, Saddamist, idiotarian, neocon, paleoconservative, showdown, stand down, peacenik, terror-apologist, evil (evil!), And may God continue to bless America… one more time I’ll… well, I suspect unladylike conduct will be involved.
The wisest reaction would no doubt be to say, hush, be glad for this shared outrage and call for humanity pouring out onto the world’s sidewalks, and to call for a day of ceasefire, reflection and negotiation, but I’m too frustrated by this feeling of us all being so many pawns for the few, so I hereby courteously and quietly invite you to share.
What catch words and phrases are driving you nuts? Setting thine teeth to gnashing? What’s the most egregious bit of punditry/speechifying you’ve heard of late?
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Comment
- Can I start with Tony Blair’s sheer gall in speaking of the urgent need to address the humanitarian crisis? Actually giving figures for the past five years, and making it sound as though it was not, in considerable part, of his making.
“The humanitarian disaster is here and now. It is happening, it has actually been happening for years.”
I’ve rarely hurled such a slew of invectives at an innocent TV set. It was not pretty.
— Gail Mar 26, 2:32pm # - biblical dimensions
— steve Mar 26, 2:38pm # - The ceasless rantings of an uninformed majority.
— Jason Wall Mar 26, 2:59pm # - Pretty much anything spoken by the hawks that suggests the “pounding” we’re giving to the Iraqi people is for their own good, that it’s to their advantage that we are crushing them, and especially the suggestion that God has in any way blessed this stultifying affair;
pretty much anything Bush says, or whenever he shows his face on t.v. (which I watch far too much of these days because it’s like a fucking train wreck and the media knows it and they’re capitalizing on it and making it more and more sensational and totally unreal everyday and I just keep watching, waiting for the sign that the end is truly nigh, just like the High Holy Iraqi Savior Bush is prophesying);
the word “embedded,” especially when spoken by the nuts who have willingly chosen to be so.
Perhaps a better question might have been, “What DOESN‘T set thine teeth to gnashing?”
— michaelbrown Mar 26, 3:35pm # - I hate all that CB lingo, like all the hey ten four good buddy and rollin in a convoy look out for smokey stuff.
— Dean Cameron Allen Mar 26, 4:10pm # - “quick victory” and “collateral damage”. damn I hate that last one, especially.
— amanda Mar 26, 4:17pm # - Can you &*%$ing believe this: the OED now accepts “nukyular” as a correct pronounciation for nuclear, based on common usage by public figures. Not sure if I read this on your site or not, but I have no words that speak my outrage. Let’s all accept ignorance because its prevalent.
— Jim Mar 26, 4:17pm # - Oh god. An embarrassment of riches. In the last 3 minutes:
“The coming victory is going to be the biggest good thing that has happened in the world, the West and the United States since the twin towers fell.”
—Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal
“the media’s barrage of images of [Rachel] Corrie looking Caucasian and saintly has not abated”
—Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs
“Who would have guessed that the amiable but unprepossessing son of George H.W. Bush—a prankster and overly enthusiastic drinker in his youth, a man (like Moses?) who often tripped over his words—would become a president of such vision and high purpose? ...The man who slept through many classes at Yale and partied the nights away stands revealed as a profound and great leader who will reshape the world for the better. The United States is lucky once again.”
—Mona Charen, Jewish World Review
— eric Mar 26, 4:33pm # - Everything. I’m not happy. You can’t talk rationally about a scheme for the disembowelment of people or countries. But, to the point, I can’t listen to people talking like CNN financial reporters. All the collateral damage and bankrupt policies and mortgaged nations and repossessed souls. People need to try hard not to buy in or sell out or look at bottom lines.
— eeksy mcpeeksy Mar 26, 4:34pm # - Now that I’ve picked my chin up off the floor after reading Mona Charen’s love letter to Bush, I will add two things that have been raising my hackles lately:
TV networks that call their coverage of the conflict “War with Iraq” like it’s some kind of freakin’ joint effort, as though they’re both on the same side in bringing this spectacle to the world …. and the sudden proliferation of documentaries outlining the history of the monsters that currently people Bush’s inner circle. Watching them, the only thing I can think is, “why weren’t these made (or aired) years ago when it might have made a difference in whether or not they got elected?” I’m not sure that it would have made a difference, but I can’t help feeling that it might have.
— Hillary Mar 26, 5:29pm # - I will never again be able to hear the word “embedded” without flinching.
— KF Mar 26, 6:15pm # - Anybody else notice the recent shift from “My fellow Americans…” to “My fellow citizens” in Bush’s recent speeches? Hmm. Post-revolutionary France? But what gets me going most of all is hearing Bush administration officials brandishing accusations of war crimes. And then there’s Bush going on about a “grand coalition”... huh?!
— Carlos Mar 26, 6:27pm # - I know it’s already up here, but “embedded” is certainly the word making me grit my teeth at the moment. And why do all the “embedded” have to wear fucking khaki outfits with many pockets? The first few times I heard the term, I thought they were saying “in bedded”.
Also, a “friend” recently forwarded me this link where you can be a penpal to soldiers that aren’t getting any mail. Awwwww. SniffleSniffSniff.
It makes me want to write hundreds of letters to these poor misguided brainwashed jarheads asking how many years of abuse it took to become such good yes boys, why their daddies didn’t love them, and “Uh-oh! Hope you don’t shoot yourself in the foot!”
— Amelia Mar 26, 7:01pm # - Honestly, I’m a little tired of both sides. I think my patience with the peace activists ran out this morning upon reading a report of two women who were handing out cups of poisoned hot chocolate to unsuspecting war supporters. And as for those who feel it’s our “God-given right” to bomb Iraq to bits and advance the humanitarian crisis in an already beaten up part of the world….well, all I can say there is what have you done to make the world a little better lately?
I’m sure you’ll pardon the grouchiness. I knew there was a reason my husband nicknamed me “Miss Cranky”.
— Tiffany Mar 26, 7:32pm # - One more sports analogy used to refer to this or that aspect of a military operation and I’ll open up a can of Hail Mary on somebody.
— --k. Mar 26, 7:56pm # - Dubya complaining because the Russians sold arms to Iraq when they weren’t supposed to. This from the country that sold iraq anthrax. is there a word for hypocrisy that also encompasses stupidity, arrogance and some sort of weird disconnection with the real world ?
— Alex Mar 26, 10:03pm # - Off the top of my head: liberation, humanitarian rescue mission, defending the world from great danger and promoting democracy in the region versus national interest, smart bombs and serious consequences.
— nardo Mar 26, 10:57pm # - ding in the juggernaut n. a dead British or American soldier.
‘Retired Army Lt. Col. Andrew Krepinevich agreed with Gingrich’s view, saying that “despite the best efforts of the Iraqi military, they have not been able to stop a fantastic rate of advance, one of the greatest advances in military history, and they have not been able to do more than ding the coalition juggernaut.”’
—’War Could Last Months, Some Military Officers Say,” Washington Post, March 26, 2003
— eric Mar 26, 11:15pm # - I’m with Amelia on “embedded media.” And to make things worse, at the moment I’m putting quicktime movies into flash movies. Everytime I import, I get a dialogue box asking me if I want to embed media. No. No I do not.
I was also sickened recently by our (australian) P.M commenting that he had listened to and respected the opinion of the Australian people and they the Aust people should in turn, respect his opinion. As if they were somehow the same thing.
Uggh.
— meredith Mar 26, 11:52pm # - - Allied Forces
– The Northern Alliance
– Coalition Forces
– The United Front
They’re an insult to the UN. I suggest the UN be dismantled and dissolved before it is subjected to more humiliation.
— bluecheese Mar 27, 12:23am # - regime change n : Coup d’état.
— ron Mar 27, 1:16am # - “U.S. loses faith in Canada”
How many times do we blindly have to support an unjust cause? I’m sick and tired of being told I’m “anti-american” because I’m against this war. Your opening statement was great by the way.
— Ben Mar 27, 1:36am # - I grit and grind when Bush is briefing the nation and can’t keep his excitement about this joke of a war in his pants and reverts into an even deeper thick southern Texian drawl and begins shouting: “yeeahawww, gonna get dem somebitches this time, yeeehawww”. Start shootin’ up the oval office. Cowboys and Indians and John Wayne, oh my. ok-really, its ‘embedded’. Suddenly everything is embedded, but most of all: my national pride.
— editor Mar 27, 1:39am # - ”...the Iraqi people…” That’s how bad it is.
— martin o.j.de b. Mar 27, 3:01am # - “embedded”, of course (Jonah in Leviathan ?)
“collateral damage” (Pandora’s box ?),
and “axis of evil” (were’nt good and evil supposed to be closely intertwined ? Things have changed lately, I suppose)
btw : bel article
— Thierry Guillemin Mar 27, 3:43am # - “operation freedom Iraq, ” “shock and awe, ” “intense attack, ” “the eyrequee dictaytor, ” and many more, too numerous to list here…. But mostly all that loud, breathless babbling form the “embedded ” reporters standing in their khakis in the patches of sand with tanks rolling by…
I tried to get away from hearing it all on TV (I don’t know why I didn’t just turn it off right away), so I kept changing channels until I got to REI, the Italian TV station we can subscribe to here in California, and for a few minutes it was almost like a tiny taste of sanity … and then they, too, cut to Bush, and though my invectives were lacking in subtlety and shading, I managed to hurl a few myself before I pressed that “off” button … then I headed for a long walk around my hilly neighborhood, muttering to myself about the end of all reason….
... which maybe closer than we think, as I noticed that all this fighting with the current discourse that is meant to shock and awe us into blind acceptance, is using up considerable chunks of our collective creative energy—that is, we have to spend so much time and energy repopulating those hollowed words and phrases not only with meaning, but also with the kind of life-sustaining connotations they once used to inspire.
In these days, when I watch TV or read the American press, I often find myself having flashbacks to my childhood in that Eastern European country in which all news, and all its forms of expressions, were couched in the language spoken and approved by the Kremlin of the early 1960s…. It’s déj vu all over again….
— maria Mar 27, 3:48am # - “homeland” and “international community”
— steve Mar 27, 7:27am # - To me, it’s been the changes in the visuals that have been most disturbing (though I too mourn the loss of the word “embedded” to the military void).
We thought perhaps that Gulf War I was the ultimate video game experience, but GWII has taken the next step, with some images that are obviously pre-constructed (and market-tested?) in NBC, CBS, ABC boardrooms.
Journalists astride armoured vehicles careening across desert landscapes. Reports via webcam from the flightdeck. Insertiions with special forces into abandoned airstrips; in-and-out before anyone gets hurt.
The premeditated nature of so much of the coverage – digested for our evening entertainment, makes me want to wretch.
Oh what a lovely war.
— matt Mar 27, 7:37am # - In the first few days the greatest irritation was all the correspondents wondering when the “shock and awe we were promised” was going to start. And looking increasingly petulant that they hadn’t yet had their billion dollar fireworks show yet. As if some long awaited treat were being deferred.
Now it’s the implied anxious anticipation of the first use of chemical and/or biological weaponry. Do they all have to act like they’re hoping for it? I can understand why the Bush warlords are invested in there being such weapons, this being a primary justification for the whole conflagration. But do even the supposed bleeding-heart lefties on NPR have to be so shameless about it? We aren’t watching a movie here.
— Phineas Mar 27, 9:55am # - coalition
— Beerzie Boy Mar 27, 11:50am # - Definitely “collateral damage” and “shock and awe” (the former a classic that never loses its stench, the latter a new source of loathing).
Jim: “Nucular” is a perfectly good alternate pronunciation that will probably become standard eventually (cf. “wenzday” for “wed-nes-day”). Get used to it and save your outrage for things that deserve it, like this war. If you need more convincing, see here:
http://languagehat.blogspot.com/2003_02_01_languagehat_archive.html#88606650 (Feb. 5 ‘03 entry)
or here:
http://blahedo.blogspot.com/2003_02_02_blahedo_archive.html#88518754
— language hat Mar 27, 12:08pm # - “It is clear the citizens demonstrate worldwide because they want peace. And that is what we’re trying to achieve. We want peace and security.”
Aznar. President of Spain. He’s stating this every single day. With the same words. It’s maddening.
— Heck Mar 27, 12:19pm # - This is an aside, but I have wanted to say for some time how much I admire those Americans who are speaking out in opposition.
I recognize how much easier (and sometimes facile) it is for those of us from other nations to speak; I can only imagine what these paleovisceral times (how’s that for a neologism?) must be for you.
So, kudos and thanks, and my deepest respect to you all. (Except, of course, the hot chocolate poisoners. Ma ché?)
— Gail Mar 27, 1:32pm # - Anything that is uttered and mangled by Shrub and his cohorts.
— roggey Mar 27, 3:32pm # - “Coalition of the Willing.” The contempt and scorn oozing from every fetid pore of neoconservative pit bull. The white man’s burden, noblesse oblige, and daunting struggle to bring civilization to Those Who Refuse To See How We Are Helping Them. The passive-aggressive bitchslaps to supposed allies – no, there are only a select few, elite nations, if you will, that dare follow this treacherous path. The fascist overtones: the blatant doublespeak, the union of morality and virtue with state, the willing and determined ignorance. The disbelief that there could ever, on God’s green earth, be anything better than three nations sending troops and 27-42 others kinda supporting the action but not really.
— Scott Mar 27, 3:45pm # - Hey, big news, politics has always used rhetorical language; the media have always gone for sensationalism. Our idea of what’s going on can’t stop at that superficial level. Facts count more than words, sense counts more than the way it’s conveyed.
I actually see far less charged language than one year ago in the media. It seems everyone’s sobered up the coverage. Honestly, but perhaps that’s just me. Being in disagreement with the negotiation proposition, the last thing that bothers me about this war is the obvious fact of it being a war and getting called a war and getting shown as war – haven’t even heard the “collateral damage” in ages, now it’s “civilian casualties”. I don’t watch much of the tv coverage so I don’t get the repetition effect.
— Minnie Mar 27, 10:57pm # - Scott – no intention to start a political debate here no worry :-) but hasn’t a simpler explanation occurred to you, ie. it’s not the UN, it’s not NATO, it’s not some existing coalition with a predefined name, but only of nations actually willing to participate in this action, whether they’re in NATO or not – so, “coalition of the willing” sounds pretty straightforward description of that which is, in all effect, a coalition – even if you think it’s only US and UK, it’s a coalition.
Seriously, there’s such a simple, direct legal-political-international relations reason to give it that name.
— Minnie Mar 27, 11:00pm # - “The US and UK are acting together in a noble purpose. We are working together to make the world more peaceful,” said President Bush.
— Tim Mar 28, 5:21am # - Assorted goat fuckers in the local media insisting that Canada really should be supporting ‘our biggest ally, best neighbour, trading partner and protector’ at its ‘hour of need’, because otherwise the Americans will punish us with trade tariffs and our economy will be hurting for years. Yes, folks, we should go kill Iraqi children, not because we oppose a vicious dictator or give a damn about freedom, but to stay on the good side of the American money men.
— JH Mar 28, 1:37pm # - smart bombs
Unined States
nukyuler
liberal media
peace keepers
— barbara Mar 28, 1:41pm # - oh, and I almost forgot… safe depleted uranium warheads
— barbara Mar 28, 1:42pm # - may I add weapons of mass destruction … if I never hear it again it will be too soon. Just having to type it is sending me out for a smoke
— lewis Mar 28, 4:26pm # - “When the Iraqis start to fear Saddam less than they fear us, they will surrender.”
—Rabid Dog Rumsfeld
— eric Mar 28, 4:26pm # - “embedded”
“coalition of the willing”
In general, I’m tired of hearing about how really damn effective we Americans are at killing people, dontcha know, we can put a bomb down on top of innocent civilians with amazing accuracy, look at how good we are at slaughtering people. Ugh.
Finally, in response to the comment above complaining about “nukyular” in the OED, there are a lot of things I’d like to say, but I’ll try to be socially acceptable and not inappropriate. Dictionaries are for recording the language as it is actually used, not promoting some idealist vision of how it should be. Hell, trekkie is in the OED. You can criticize it for being bad style, but it’s just as “correct” as the pronounciation you apparently prefer.
— Chris Tessone Mar 28, 7:30pm # - I think the final straw for me was the other night when all three major US TV networks used the last hour or so of primetime for war news reporting. As I flipped from one to the other, EACH of them was reporting about the media coverage. One did an “analysis” of what different newspapers and TV networks were calling this event and what their logos looked like. One was talking about why the Mbdd reporters were always shown in front of a moving target (keeps people’s interest).
Blah blah blah.
Even on the opening days it seemed the reporting was all about the reporting and waiting for the story to “really” start. On NPR the in-Baghdad journalist said she’d been awakened by a boom but that there was nothing going on. The stateside person kept pumping her for news on where the bombing was happening as though the triumphant military was about to enter the city. Hey folks – report the FACTS and let the story happen as it will.
— Mary Beth Mar 29, 3:55pm # - A bit off topic, but my favorite piece of truth regarding this war is by, believe it or not, Richard Cheney, who said, way back in mid-September, 2001 (as quoted by Bob Woodward in his book Bush at War):
“If we go after Saddam Hussein, we lose our rightful place as good guy.”
— eric Mar 30, 1:10pm # - A couple of weeks ago, a TV report showed a US military commander by the name of Keating giving a pep talk to some soldiers. “When we start to come down on Iraq, it’s hammer time. It! Is! Hammer! Time!”. I can’t get the image of MC Hammer jumping around in baggy khakis out of my mind.
Puerile, macho posturing carries on in the US armed forces, as per usual.
— Jez Mar 31, 3:20pm # - The only “coalition of the willing” I can imagine is a queue of hormony teenagers outside a club on a Saturday evening, all willing to get in there and shine forth in utter, well, willingness.
— katatonik Mar 31, 6:11pm # - Paleovisceral—a word I’ve been needing, thank you! As far as I’m concerned those who practice poison are not practicing peace. I feel so alone…
Hypocritical is another word that has come to mind regarding many people, but paleovisceral just describes the whole atmosphere in such a cathartic way.
Collateral damage is the one that really makes me sick. These are people???
— moose Mar 31, 6:15pm # - Jez,
While Keating was shouting about hammering Iraq, Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ was being blasted from the flight deck speakers.
This is the Heavy Metal War, the Headbanger War, the Beavis and Butthead War, The Mosh Pit War.
— eric Mar 31, 6:25pm # - degradation of enemy forces – curious military jargon with a telling moralistic undercurrent flowing in which direction exactly?
A Day of Reckoning – Coming from the man who is War, Famine, Pollution & DEATH all rolled into one (minus the wit), the term has an ominous ring.
— Dirk Apr 1, 1:53am # - The “science” of it all. (Washington Post; reg. req’d)
— Ken Apr 1, 11:47am # - Saddam is an ‘enemy of peace’ -GWB
— Stan Apr 1, 7:00pm # - Pounding Baghdad
Makes me want to write Rummy a letter…
That was an impressive and manly initial thrust, Mr. Rumsfeld, but the sequel has proved to be something of an anticlimax. Don’t be put off if Iraq struggles a bit—scratches, bites, or even screams—you know she really loves it. Besides, a few of your guys are on the way to help hold her down while you finish up. So go ahead, bang away. The outcome is certain. Bang, bang, bang until you pentrate Baghdad. And have a nice wargasm.
— eric Apr 2, 10:55pm # - and today…“Sit Tight”...which is the stand the British troops are now taking. (hush, don’t let anyone know they’ve decided to ‘sit tight’ at a place where they have easy and cheap access to petroleum…nope…they’re just ‘sitting tight’ till the ‘fourth infantry’ comes along…that’s as bad an excuse as ‘I did my homework but the dog ate it’)
— bluecheese Apr 3, 5:07pm # - I am particularly unenamored of the military tendency to reduce the gaggle of opposing forces to the 3rd person singular pronoun:
“The enemy is taking what forces he can muster and is ordering them back into the city,” a senior American military officer said tonight. “He is bringing in the Republican Guard for a last stand…”
— tom m Apr 4, 8:05am #
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