Phrases that grate

The lexicographical leftists will soon be bombarding us with their ill-chosen word(s) of the year.  Lake Superior State University will even release their annual banned words and phrases list.  Since they are suffused with leftist propaganda, here are some diverse suggestions for them, along with some examples illustrating their use.

The phrase “you can’t make this up” has become a tiresome incantation, often reflecting bemusement at Biden’s petulant policies.  Instead, how about “inexplicable,” or “incomprehensible,” to succinctly capture his compunction to reverse Trump’s America First policies?  Unfortunately, one can make this up because Biden is malevolently mad.  His unfathomable DEI and ESG imperatives are impervious to rationality. 

Another phrase that grates is “that being said.”  It is often conveyed by pandering politicians playing both sides.  And by “two-armed” economists -- “on the one hand, this; on the other hand, that.”  In many instances, the phrase can be discarded, simply replaced with “nevertheless,” or “nonetheless.”  An example might be: “Bidenomics is an apt description of his inflationary and ESG policies, leading to higher interest rates and prohibitively costly essentials. Nevertheless, the wholesome American consumer, while exhibiting disdain for woke retailers, is resolute and spirited.  In aggregate, they account for a large proportion of the robust 4.9% annual rate increase in GDP for the third quarter of 2023.”

The concoction “special interest aliens” is especially alien to common sense. It probably won’t receive much attention from the academics, but the open border catastrophe it highlights deserves more specificity.  An obvious replacement is “terroristic aliens,” or something that invokes rampaging invaders reminiscent of those who vandalized Rome.  At a minimum, it should be “special interest illegal aliens,” or “extra suspicious illegal aliens.”  “Fanatical intruders”?  Whatever, the point is that “special interest aliens” is terminal terminology.  It is so innocuous, even precious, that it underappreciates the threat the illegal aliens-cum-terrorists pose to our own Republic.

After waffling interminably, politicians will often summarize their blabber with an inane utterance like, “at the end of the day.”  That also needs to be rephrased. Clearly, politicians with little self-awareness like the sound of their voices too much, otherwise they’d simply say “ultimately.”  It would be much more productive if they would just conduct business then shut up, “at long last.”

One cannot be too persnickety with free expression, but surely the banality “spending like drunken sailors,” has reached its end date.  It is an affront to our modern, dedicated, and highly-trained Navy personnel.  Nowadays, they’re advised they represent their country before disembarking, and they’re encouraged to be circumspect before patronizing the bars and bordellos during ports of call. Besides, “spending like vote-buying politicians” more accurately captures the profligate pecuniary propositions of peculiar Modern Monetary Theory.

With the world in turmoil thanks largely to Biden’s upside-down “conflict through weakness” approach, his message to Hezb’allah and Iran is, “Don’t, Don’t, Don’t.“  He’s clearly a simpleton, even leaving it for the interviewer, CBS’s Scott Pelly, to fill in the blanks in this case.

Another questionable phrase the word police impose is “restorative justice,” which is often regurgitated by sick progressives on school boards.  It may sound inoffensive -- to them -- but it mollycoddles rather than holding misbehaving students accountable.   Actually, it’s not restoring justice at all, but perpetuates the bigotry of low expectations, and should be consigned to the terminal terminology bin of the large leftist language model.

In 2020, after raring his ugly head from his bunker, Biden called a woman at a campaign stop a “lying dog-faced pony soldier.”  He has also directed that epithet towards others, including conscientious “climate deniers” when he was embarrassing himself before “going to bed” during his Vietnam visit in September, 2023.

No one can quite ascertain what the blithering idiot is going on about.  Indians called the U.S. Cavalry “pony soldiers,” but the John Wayne movie he claims contains the quote is a figment of his warped imagination.  The closest reference is a John Wayne movie titled She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, which had the phrase “dog-faced soldiers.” 

Normally, “you can’t make this up,” but Biden’s is a cretin capable of formulating mangled verbiage.  Ultimately (“when all is said and done”), he is the most withered, lying dog-faced pony soldier in the regiment -- or should that be herd? His terminology is as terminal as his ghoulish countenance.

All these phrases need to be rephrased, or simply phased out, but not “at the end of the day [year].”  Rather, as a preemptive attempt to inject some intellectual diversity before the effete lexicographers parlay their parlance into Orwellian mind control.

Indeed, crazed leftists seek to control the debate with deception and manipulation.  Their linguistic   lunacy is promulgated from legacy media in an attempt to control the masses.  CBS Mornings host Gayle King, for example, endeavors to foist upon hapless viewers the term “truthism” as a substitute for “wokeism.”

Perhaps she and her illiberal ilk can comprehend Biden’s doggerel: Don’t, don’t, don’t! 

Image: Pexels, Ann H.

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