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Why can't our politicians speak English anymore?
The Week ^ | September 28, 2016 | Pascal-Emmanuel Gorby

Posted on 09/28/2016 7:28:54 AM PDT by C19fan

Ater Monday night's presidential debate, most pundits are focusing on who won, who lost, and what it all means for the future of the country. But the only thought that keeps asserting itself in my mind is this: These candidates are terrible at speaking English.

I mean that in the most literal sense possible: They're bad at formulating complete, grammatically correct sentences that effectively carry meaning. And this isn't just a petty complaint about "style" or "form" — it says something bigger about America, and this dumpster fire of an election we're in.

(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...


TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: rheoteric
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To: null and void

poly = many [Gr]
tete = head [Fr]

Politician = many headed monster


21 posted on 09/28/2016 8:04:53 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: Madame Dufarge

Be careful of your thoughts, for they become your words. Be careful of your words, for they become your actions. Be careful of your actions, for they become your character. Be careful of your character, for it becomes your destiny.


22 posted on 09/28/2016 8:07:54 AM PDT by rey
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To: Madame Dufarge

In my humble opinion texting is doing very severe and lasting damage to the English language. Another generation or two and nobody will be capable of writing a non-machine generated complete sentence.

This has apparently already infested the journalism school graduates who write the screen-bottom scrawl for cable news channels.


23 posted on 09/28/2016 8:12:20 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: rey
"I don't know what you mean by 'glory'," Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't- till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"

"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument'," Alice objected.

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean- neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master-that's all."

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. "They've a temper some of them- particularly verbs: they're the proudest- adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs- however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!

" Through the Looking Glass, Ch. VI

The Humpty Dumpty theory of language

24 posted on 09/28/2016 8:14:55 AM PDT by Madame Dufarge
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To: HiTech RedNeck
poly = many
tics = blood-sucking insects
25 posted on 09/28/2016 8:17:25 AM PDT by GodBlessRonaldReagan (The jolly, candy-like button!)
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To: Buckeye McFrog
This has apparently already infested the journalism school graduates who write the screen-bottom scrawl for cable news channels.

I've observed this for some time. The atrocious spelling and appalling grammar are the norm now.

26 posted on 09/28/2016 8:20:37 AM PDT by Madame Dufarge
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To: C19fan
They're bad at formulating complete, grammatically correct sentences that effectively carry meaning.

They grew up speaking gibberish and when challenged, they said "Oh you know what I mean".

And their generation is teaching our children and grandchildren - unless we and our own children are smart enough to home school, and teach them correct English.

27 posted on 09/28/2016 8:25:03 AM PDT by grobdriver (Where is Wilson Blair when you need him?)
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To: bluejean

“dumpster fire of an election”
____________________________

Insurgencies ALWAYS look like “dumpster fires,” its their nature!


28 posted on 09/28/2016 8:39:01 AM PDT by EarlT357
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To: fluorescence
When his teleprompter goes down he trails off into nothing until his minders turn it back on.

He also suffers from an "intellectual stutter" that occurs when his "brilliant mind" races faster than his lips can move.

29 posted on 09/28/2016 8:41:47 AM PDT by luvbach1 (We are finished. It will just take a while before everyone realizes it.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
poly = many [Gr]
tete = head [Fr]

Politician = many headed monster


mort = dead [Lat]
tete = head [fr]

Mortician = deadhead
30 posted on 09/28/2016 8:42:11 AM PDT by Carpe Cerevisi
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To: Buckeye McFrog
In my humble opinion texting is doing very severe and lasting damage to the English language.

ur rite.

31 posted on 09/28/2016 8:43:42 AM PDT by luvbach1 (We are finished. It will just take a while before everyone realizes it.)
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To: C19fan

There are several reasons for this:
* liberals refusing to use straightforward terms for concepts and instead using more abstract and emotionally removed phrases for ideas; George Carlin’s rant on this was brilliant a decade ago like shell shock turning into PTSD.
* their redefinition of words to not include them for bad things (blacks beating up whites screaming racist insults can’t be racist per the bias + power definition) and include them when it isn’t (well if an X is this and this, then I’m X!”
* the in group language of SJWs getting reinforced in academia and the elite seen as the “elite, educated” dialect, allowing them to dismiss those who don’t use the fancy proper terms as stupid, which fits the liberal prejudiced view of conservatives fine. And that view reinforces that dialect as the right, proper and refined one that “good” people must use
* They do it in an effort to alter the emotions tied to the concepts, per Sapir-Whorf theory that language shapes though. If they ban “gendered” or “racist” terms, they think they’ll eliminate those thoughts - but they have to invent replacements that only their elite know first. Now we’re back to in-group language reinforcing social class status.


32 posted on 09/28/2016 9:29:56 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: fluorescence

You noticed that bit of obligatory propaganda, too.


33 posted on 09/28/2016 10:07:10 AM PDT by Arthur McGowan
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