George Carlin - Euphemisms

Did anyone else notice this euphemism treadmill update? "for people experiencing homelessness" "the number of people experiencing homelessness" "of those experiencing homelessness" This softer language with more syllables is not for the benefit of the homeless, it's for everyone else so they don't feel as bad about it. Which makes it less likely anything will be done. George Carlin made this point brilliantly: ▶ this video

George Carlin has a great bit on euphemism where he makes the case that euphemisms are used to soften the meaning of things that are painful to the point of being meaningless, e.g. shellshock -> ptsd ▶ this video The author of this article pointed our some similar examples: welfare -> cash assistance -> TANF.

George Carlin had a great bit[1] about our continuous need to soften our language with euphemisms. That, combined with a kind of forced optimism: needing to hide all negativity inside robotic passive aggression, is what communication has become in a lot of corporations. I don't imagine anyone actually likes having to do it, but we all seem to adopt these speech patterns eventually. Every time your boss tells you, "Hey, can you tone it down next time? Fred told me he was very offended by your asking him to do his job!"-- you're being asked to participate in the game. 1: ▶ this video

"You can't be afraid of words that speak the truth. I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms or euphemistic language. And American english is loaded with euphemisms. Because Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent a kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it. And it gets worse with every generation. For some reason it just keeps getting worse." - George Carlin Here's an amusing and insightful video of Carlin dissecting the language behind Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ▶ this video The U.S. military seems particularly prone to this habit of using euphemisms to mask reality.

Because it goes hand-in-hand with the euphemism treadmill. I defer to the late great George Carlin's words on the subject: I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Cause Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent the kind of a soft language to protest themselves from it, and it gets worse with every generation. Video ▶ this video or text form: link

I believe this reflects the euphemization of the english language in US, a concept that George Carlin discussed many years ago [1]. As he put it, "we don't die, we pass away" or "we are not broke, we have negative cash flow". Many non-English speakers find these terms to be nonsensical. [1] ▶ this video

> Much of what is categorized as post-traumatic stress disorder may actually be caused by repeated exposure to blasts. that is to say, it's actually shell shock? as in, actual physical shock from actual shells? george carlin would be so proud ▶ this video the article also mentions that they'd all trained extensively in diving deep underwater, which is also known to cause brain damage, but the 'interface astroglial scarring' pathology lab results sound pretty specific to big shock waves i'm skeptical that firing a rifle produces shock waves that induce cavitation in brain tissue, though

"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." George Carlin. ▶ this video *

> I prefer the term blind because it is pretty descriptive and relatively short Always reminds me of the George Carlin bit on language euphemisms used to distance us from reality ( ▶ this video ).

Contemporary word fixation is a distraction. People should get off the social media hamster wheel, take a walk, and dream up a more meaningful way to help their fellow man (human / hxmxn / whatever). It's blown up to the extent that we must now write essays about it, but it would have been better if we had never gone there in the first place. This stuff is very not new. George Carlin did a rant about it over 30 years ago [1]. Seems like the only real effect is class signaling; those who invest in staying "with it" signal their willingness to pay lip service to the latest ideological fads. [1] ▶ this video

Ha, I'm surprised they still say "layoff" at all, and not mask it behind some softer euphemism. Reminds me of this George Carlin's performance: ▶ this video

The George Carlin bit [1] about euphemisms comes to mind. While not quite in the lens of marketing hyperbole it captures really well what it means to dilute the language. The result is a loss of meaning and expressive power. If everything is something, nothing is. 1: ▶ this video