The Language Fascist strikes again!

[sabotabby]

I just came across the term "material solidarity" in an (otherwise well-intentioned) e-mail. What they meant, I think, was "aid."

Is anyone else getting sick of the way corporatespeak, or at least the structures of corporatespeak -- euphemism, jargon, etc. -- has infiltrated activist vocabulary? All of a sudden, I'm hearing about "point-people" and "bottom-lining." (One friend remarked: "You [the Wobblies] still use 'secretary'? Why?" Because it's the most accurate description of the task. Why else?)

It actually irritates me more than "wimmin" and "persyn," fundamentally misguided though those may be. Corporatespeak is pernicious in any context because it robs the language of meaning. In the realms of business and government, this is done for very specific reasons -- to shift accountability and to obscure information. ("The functionality of the copy machine has been compromised by our Associate Coffee/Errand Assistant I." vs. "The intern broke the copier.")

So what does it mean when we do it?

I'm out of here for the night. Politicos and language geeks -- discuss.

Comments

[sabotabby]

One of my dear friends consistently uses "persyn." He picked it up from MIM. Interestingly, he wasn't the catalyst for my latest memo (as Minister Responsible For Not Making Us Look Stupid) on why we shouldn't use "wimmin" when writing for a general audience. That was another friend, and I'm afraid it's catching.

I think anyone who gets offended by "American" is probably hypersensitive. I've been called an American as a result of the same logic -- well, I'm North American. I was rather offended. I can't confirm it, but I suspect most Mexicans would be offended at being called Americans unless they work for the Fox government.

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

As I suspected, a quick google revealed that the etymology of person has nothing to do with "son," which I assume to be the objection. I was thinking: person is a romance word, son is Germanic. So unless the very phonetics of male words are offensive, it's silly beyond what words can say. I mean in that case you'd have to just say "per." And that would make one a very silly sounding per.

[sabotabby]

Heh. That's usually the case. I don't think that knowledge will deter anyone, unfortunately.

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

My personal beef is that citizens of the US get called Americans. In French, the term Étatsunien is being seen in some literature to refer to Américains.

Parallely and colloquially, if the French visit English Canada, they are prone to call it "l'Amérique" and if they visit Québec, "le Canada". But that's more cluelessness than sheer stupidity, so I'm not too ticked about that one.

[sabotabby]

USians is one of those terms, like chimpresident, that I keep meaning to incorporate into my daily vocabulary and always forget until I see it in print.