Nowadays, third parties such as pundits bully the supposed aggressor into making a statement of apology to the supposed injured party, where more often than not the bully has imagined some substantial class of people for whom the apology must do multiple duty.
Category: Words Poorly Used
Words Poorly Used #116 — Right
A way of achieving lawlessness is to have too many laws. A way of gaining inarticulation is to overload words with too many meanings. The word, “right,” is overloaded beyond recognition.
Words Poorly Used, Another Devil’s Dictionary #5
Gall — That of which it takes a superfluity to make a speech in Vietnam that claims that the US has been taken advantage of. Sexual Misconduct — Sexual conduct. Dance — What tough guys don’t do.
Words Poorly Used #115 — Fault
I posted a link on Facebook about a self-driving auto in Las Vegas that had a wreck within the hour of its intro to the streets. Several people were quick to respond that the misadventure had truly been caused by a human truck driver.
Words Poorly Used #114 — Policy
POTUS immediately responds to events with a public relations front. He pats himself and government employees on the backs for doing a great job, long before any rational performance review could take place. Then he begins to make policy before our eyes.
Words Poorly Used, Another Devil’s Dictionary #4
Will of the people — That for which the people have no comprehension until they are told of it by politicians.
Words Poorly Used #113 — Appropriation
Don’t we humans make a distinction between appropriation and misappropriation? In the sense of legislation, it means adding money to an enactment, sufficient to pay for the enactment or to establish a spending target.
Words Poorly Used #112 — Condolences
There is no right thing to say to the survivors of a loved one killed in military circumstances. It is a set of circumstances that have no logical foundation. It is a place arrived at through a series of forced choices.
Words Poorly Used #111 — Echo Chamber
Confirmation bias, a fancier name for the echo chamber meme, is an important addendum to the human psyche. It becomes a bad quality when it is improperly used.
Words Poorly Used #110 — Integrity
It turns out that America’s agreements are not worth the paper on which they are written. But that was something that native peoples could have told us a long time ago. Integrity is just another weasel word.