One man's frankness is another man's vulgarity.

It's the weekend, so I thought I'd keep it light. Consequently, the subject of today's post is language. To begin with, a few phrases that annoy me:

1) "It's not fair." Life isn't fair, deal with it. Use a different word. If you can't think of one, you shouldn't be complaining. For example, something can be unfair but still be just and correct. It may suck for you, but that's life. Deal with it.

2) "I'm offended." Again: use a different word. If you can't, you're obviously trying to be PC: shut up. Why not say it makes you angry, or it's a stupid thing to say, or something that actually explains what the problem is? If you can't say anything like that, taking offense is probably silly. Furthermore, you're contributing to the dumbing down of our language. We're becoming a nation of people who can't articulate a more intelligent response than "I'm offended." That brings discussion to a halt: how do you even respond to a comment like that?

3) "Less fortunate." I never thought about this one till Neal Boortz commented on it one day, but since then I've been paying attention. It's not used when someone's house burns down; it's only used when talking about poor people. The implication is the only difference between a rich man and a poor man is luck, or fortune. It implies hard work and thriftiness isn't a factor.

4) "Giving back." Every time Bill Gates or Warren Buffett donates money to charity, the media says they're "giving back." When someone is on the news talking about his charity work, he says he's "giving back." But what does that even mean? By definition, you can't give something back that was never given to you. But it's used synonymously with "gave away" or "gave to charity." So why not just say that? Something is being implied here too: think about it.

There's a deeper problem here than lack of precision. Language is how we express ourselves and what we use to conceptualize problems and ideas. When we start dumbing language down or using it to make implied value judgments, we are also changing the way we think. In 1984 George Orwell observed that when language is limited a person's ability to think is limited to the concepts that exist in words. Even if we don't take it that far, by controlling language it is possible to shape thoughts. You may think I'm being paranoid, but there are many books and articles written on the subject.

So be careful with language. I gave you some examples, but there are many more out there. Look for them and recognize them when you see them. Don't let your thoughts be shaped by the media and politicians in the name of political correctness (whatever that is).

The title of today's post is a quote by Kevin Smith.