Phrases I hate
Over the last few days in the Telegraph there has been a list of words and phrases that readers really hate. This has inspired me to make my own list of some words and phrases that I hate.Positive discrimination - surely discrimination, by definition, is negative.
Liberal Conservative - I may be one of these but surely you can be either Liberal or Conservative and not both.
The government will pay X amount of money for X - errm, no, we will.
Democratically elected - surely the word "democratically" is superfluous to requirement.
Actually - I use it all the time but I find it so annoying.
Oh my God - sorry, I had to put that one in but as a Christian I hate when people use the Lord's name in vain.
Prospective Parliamentary candidate - considering you only become a PPC when you are actually standing, what on earth is the point of adding "prospective" here?
You're entitled to your opinion but... - roughly translates as "you're wrong and I know better than you".
Thinking outside the box - what on earth is that supposed to mean?
Blue sky thinking - I'd rather think with my brain than the sky.
I actually hate 99.99...% of corporate jargon. Please, please, please speak in plain English.
posted by Average guy on the street @ 3:57 pm
2 Comments:
I think some of these phrases make more sense than you think they do. A liberal conservative is someone who's liberal /for/ a conservative, but not liberal enough to be a just-plain-liberal. Arlen Specter, for example. And "democratically elected" is opposed to "elected, but the voting machines were rigged and there were military police standing there intimidating the voters."
Discrimination can be positive, e.g. picking an able and talented rugby player for a rugby team. You are picking him out from the rest, and therefore discriminating.
As soon as discrimination gets negative, it becomes prejudice.
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