Monday, June 29, 2009

Offend Less language

Something today about language usage that drives me, and perhaps you, nuts... When I travel I see what has become very common in the English language here as well. It's the artificial, indirect, don't offend anyone English. For instance the common phrase we see in public buildings that makes me want to choke, " Thank You For Not Smoking", is ludicrous. If the owners of the building don't want a person to smoke they should just tell them "No Smoking". But we are in the age of offend less language. So we invent euphemisms that are indirect ways of saying what we used to say directly (and clearly) before being.
While some see it as more polite to be so oblique in language, I think it is just imprecise and leads to confusion. Well, the world is a confused place now. What was right is now wrong and wrong has now become right. If we can't decide what the society believe is right it uses the offend less language. This shows that the society is retreating from reality (maybe that is one explanation the appeal to so many of Islam fanaticism).
Anyway, I have been thinking (Oops! That can be dangerous), and I have a few of the phrases that I think represents this offend less drivel that is making it so hard to communicate and understand each other. Try these offend less jewels next time you want to be drive someone crazy.
* Please Do Not Disturb- A few years ago this replaced the more direct and precise, "Do Not Disturb", but I do not understand why. Does anyone really get his or her feelings hurt if we say it without the please? Please do not disturb sounds like begging to me.
* Physically Challenged- We used to call a physically challenged person "disabled". I guess someone was offended by that term enough to change it. But why? Is disabled a bad word? Doesn't it clearly define that the person has am affliction? Will changing the word to "Physically Challenged " take away the person's disability?
* Sex Worker- Sex Workers are what we used to call "prostitutes". I think the name change was made to make prostitution seems more respectable, as if the hooker is just working like the guy down the street who repairs broken pipes.
* Senior Citizens- Even Senior Citizens know that they are old. We don't call teenagers "Junior Citizens", so way should old people be "Senior Citizens". I think calling a Senior Citizen an old or older person isn't offensive. If anyone ever a called me a "Senior Citizen" I would jump out of my wheel chair in the nursing home and club them with my bed pan until they called me an "old man".
* Differentially Sized Person- This is answer one and you might not know what it is supposed to describe. Take a guess. A "Differentially Sized Person" is someone who is "fat". Whoever came up with the phrase "Differentially Sized Person" should be force fed donuts until he or she explodes!
* Undocumented Worker- This one is clever. It refers to an "Illegal Immigrant". To make it sound as if the person who enters a country illegally is really just a hard working man or woman the people who support illegal immigration invented the phrase to hide the invasion of the illegals. But now that the U.S has received about 40 million illegal immigrants, many of whom are uneducated, criminals, drug dealers, psychologically unfit or economically dependent....it is starting to wear thin. I suspect they will created a new term, but I surely won't be the one to give them any suggestions.
* Academic Dishonest- We used to call those people "cheaters". Which do you think is a more direct and accurate term term?
* Food Server- This is what most people call a waitress or waiter. But why change that term? Is there something dishonorable in it? I think not. No doubt, the employers just decided to upgrade their title to avoid paying higher wages to the "Food Servers" in their employ .
Ok, enough of that. The examples are endless and if you want you can even give my E mails one of those offend less titles. How about "Differentially Brained E Mail"?

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