Words, usages, and phrases that annoy the shit out of you...

I hit the point recently where the word "intersectionality" makes me want to throw a television out a window. I think it's a combination of (1) its frequent use by condescending little shits (2) the sense of wheel-reinvention it has (as though this is the first generation to notice that there is interplay between race, class, gender, etc.) (3) its vaguely pseudoscientific ring, as though it were describing something you could plot out on a graph or chart and (4) the fact that it often seems to be used in place of actual insight into the ways race/class/gender/sexuality, um, intersect, like instead of actually saying anything thoughtful about the topic, you can just say "intersectionality" and be done. I got particularly mad when some young blogger accused Gloria Steinem of not understanding intersectionality, as though the debate about race and class in feminism hasn't been going on for decades, like it has never occurred to Gloria fucking Steinem before that such a thing exists.

I'm probably repeating myself... but when seemingly decent folk say they're "socially liberal, fiscally conservative"... it just makes me think of all the social service programs gutted by the recession. oh well fuck the poor, the invalid, the disabled, the mentally ill, I WANT MY MONEY

It also has a ring of the whole self congratulatory "I work hard, I balance my household budget, I am amazing blah blah blah"

yeah it's part of the whole weird designation of what things are "social issues" as if economics, power and suffering are not part of the social, have no impact on society, etc.

"intersectionality" i'd defend on the grounds of it IS a meaningful thing and if nothing else, in the right context, can be a useful string around the finger to remind you as you write to try and be precise about where exactly the points of intersection are and how they work. recently appreciated this kind of precision in anne mcclintock's imperial leather for one. but obviously anything can be ruined by being casually or newbishly thrown around.

"it is what it is"
"we are where we are"

You ain't what you're not
So see what you got....

"intersectionality" i'd defend on the grounds of it IS a meaningful thing and if nothing else, in the right context, can be a useful string around the finger to remind you as you write to try and be precise about where exactly the points of intersection are and how they work

yeah i mean the fact that "the debate about race and class in feminism [has] been going on for decades" yet often in activist etc circles has gotten virtually nowhere shows that it might be useful to have a formal term for the kinds of discussions we want to be having about class + race + gender and so on

https://twitter.com/crushingbort/status/463132110006784000 is a good summation of 'social liberal, fiscal conservative' imo

^ ahh that is good

The word "folks" is strangely ubiquitous in certain strands of, for lack of a better term, "social justice" writing. Particularly about trans issues, it seems. For instance, a friend of mine linked this article on facebook the other day; the word "folks" appears in it twenty-five times. That grates on me for some reason.

we oppressed some folks

Susan Jacoby had a screed against "folks" in The Age of American Unreason:

http://www.correntewire.com/susan_jacoby_on_the_word_folks_and_the_debasement_of_language

I knew Obama was a sociopath when he stopped looking as if he were passing gas when saying it.

I've never heard it used before but, in attempting to explain how Jimmy Saville could get away with raping 10 years olds, Tony Hall, the Director-General of the BBC, just used the word 'Siloed'.

prob because it's crept into workthink language - you'll quite often hear it being used, usually but not always negatively, to describe discrete departments or even vertical interests incapable of communicating of each other, usually for structural or organisational reasons. As soon as a word like that creeps into that sort of language, you do anything with it, the classic example, not particularly egregious really, is using action as a verb.

i mean "using 'action' as a verb". didn't see the ambiguity.

in this area, i'm really really going to conduct at a personal war in the workplace on the phrase 'get clarity'.

This was not perhaps the best context for Lord Hall to indulge in 'workthink language'.

well, yes. he'll be totally habituated to it tho. meetings, consultations, briefings, documents, emails. Lord Hall probably uses it of his sock drawer.

our org doesn't do siloing, we're all about stovepiping

"what a time to be alive" as a meme

yes. and likewise #justsaying

*what* are you just saying? using sly innuendo to make a point and denying that it's worthanyone disagreeing with it.

Yeah Ive never heard it used as "siloed" perse but "silo mentality" is an old one in corpspeak.

"dat __ doe", "clapback" and, especially, "dat clapback doe"

Now you're just making things up.

I have one facebook friend who uses all of these as well as "mic drop"

p sure "dat ___ doe" is an American thing though.

*doe

there is a shockingly large number of people -- even those who work in the media for a living -- who don't know the difference between an "op-ed" and an "editorial"

I just realized that I don't know the difference. What's the deal, k3vin?

editorial == official position of the editorial board of the organization
op-ed == opinion piece by a guest contributor and published by the organization

an editorial is written *by or on behalf of the editors* and is meant to reflect the view of the editors of the publication. an op-ed is a commentary piece written by someone who may be affiliated with the publication but does not necessarily reflect the view of the editors of the publication

xp what aimless said

thanks! seems obvious now that you explain it, but it had never occurred to me to even differentiate.

the fuck is "le sigh"

fuck that bullshit

also have we talked about white people going "YAAAAASSSSSSSS"

it's amusing for me to read on the internet now because it's been a common and extremely Glasgow expression my entire life - but obviously it's obnoxious

"le sigh" is a Warner Brothers cartoon thing yeah? I remember it from Tiny Toons but maybe it goes back to Pepe le Pew even.

also have we talked about white people going "YAAAAASSSSSSSS"

― marcos, Friday, March 4, 2016 4:08 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think I posted about this, maybe even in this thread? At the time I didn't even know where it was appropriated from, now I do and it's still annoying, possibly moreso.

ha okay it sounded really familiar

"wow"

Marcos fwiw I can't find my YAAAASSSSS post, and the spelling issue makes it pretty much unsearchable. But it wasn't in this thread or the current IA thread, it seems.

YAAASSSSS annoys the shit out of me, bcs YASS is a shitty country town in australia that should be burnt to the ground.

white people?

The only person I've ever heard say Yaaaaaaasss was that cat.

yeah i remember the thread where yasss was discussed - so okay now i know where it comes from that doesn't stop it mainly coming across as an incredibly stultified meme in the same vein as all the feels or whatever, tho it doesn't help that i do tend to imagine it in a sort of braying tory posh british accent.

not sure knowing the place it came from will stop me doing that, though perhaps i'm too cynical about the possibility that someone's shouted football celebration at a gif of taylor swift raising an eyebrow is an endorsement of trans culture.

"play out"

That shit is played.

"Concerning" for "causing concern"

Oh fuck yeah. "Well that's concerning..."

'SLAY'

(I thought the Beyonce song would kill it off, but it seems like people are still using it unironically)

I'm normally pretty relaxed about this, but the ubiquity of 'invite' as a noun, plus the realisation that it's already gone past the point of no return, are making for a lot of wincing on my part