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

"lets agree to disagree" often just a useful reminder that actual engagement in disagreement is 95% sophomoric performance and lunch is pending

sometimes tho it's a weaselly way to sneak out of an argument that isn't going your way

other phrases that have sometimes proved to be weaselly dick moves:
"you're right, i absolutely agree"
"i love you"
"this treaty means our countries will never go to war"

outright lies vs. rhetorical escape hatches

is there a way to suspend an argument that isn't going to be a rhetorical escape hatch tho? i often use "you're probably right" but inside i'm thinking "except you're totally not and one day i shall crush you"

http://imgur.com/QRMHLq4l.png

"Vacay"--ugh. Like it's not bad enough that you're posting pictures six times a day.

My favorite rhetorical escape hatch is "you could be right about that". So much more submerged than "let's agree to disagree". If you say it with the right tone of voice, your interlocutor will never notice you are not actually in full agreement. Works best with your boss.

"intellectual honesty" the worst people use this.

"i get that" another pretty good one but can easily slip into shades of peremptory condescension so handle with care

(i said that to my boss in a partic frantic roundtable conversation last week and immediately doubted myself)

ach sure nobody should do anything but agree sure

they should probably have to list back a precis of the discussion to ensure they were on message afterwards tbh

i realize i spend a lot of time beating up on "traditional media", but dogged conformance to journalistic style, after it has become abundantly clear that journalistic substance is a dead letter, really does chap my hide. recently i saw the headline "Employee, man brawl inside Chick-Fil-A restaurant in DC". If that's how your style guide tells you to write, you should strongly consider selectively ignoring your style guide.

Headlines are notoriously places where brevity is elevated above grammar and sense.

yeah wtf style guides rule

Re: ‘let’s agree to disagree’: “it is our duty to be inflexible on matters of principle: we owe our friends friendship, we do not owe them weakness.” (Ian Hamilton Finlay)

what is the outcome of that tho

as in i could see it being an argument for or against agreeing to disagree!

when scummy politicians say another one speaks "truth to power" is something I keep hearing recently, even before Andrew Bridgen used it about Boris earlier, I heard it used on another mendacious creep recently.

oftentimes

^ An American Thing

id use bytimes a good bit tbh

maybe I just notice it more for obvious reasons but I've been seeing "lodestar" a lot in non-political articles

I heard someone advocate recently for editing every possible cliche out of one’s writing, and I think it’s a good rule. I think that’s part of what this thread is getting at. We all read more writing from more people every day than at any previous point in history and most of it’s boring.

Conversely, you also run into writing that strains painfully to avoid cliche and to express simple ideas in unusual gimmicky ways and it can be a mess.

I used to use clichés like they were going out of style. Now I avoid them like the plague.

lol

Choreography has always been a lodestar for Ms. Letissier

oh god it's happening to me too

Conversely, you also run into writing that strains painfully to avoid cliche and to express simple ideas in unusual gimmicky ways and it can be a mess.

― mick signals, Wednesday, September 12, 2018 11:52 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is annoying but they are lodestar in comparison

anus champ

LoadStar, the floppy-disk-based magazine for Commodore 64 users, has always been a ... a touchstone for me.

xp that was the exact article that led me to mention it actually

lol i figured it might've been

I'm still waiting to see which Democratic candidate will turn out to be our Lode Runner for Atari 800, Commodore 64, and Apple II systems with at least 64k RAM

Avoid clichés by isolating, quarantining, and thoroughly fumigating them.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dm6vZTJXcAA_W-H.jpg:small

ew

I really want to start responding to 'morning' with a hearty 'well-observed'.

"Hello!"
"Oh, how very original."

Posts that start 'This is huge' followed by some revelation the author is certain will DEFINITELY lead to Trump's impeachment/Brexit being cancelled/whatever

'I'm so sorry for your loss.'
'I'm so sorry for your addiction to clichés. My deepest sympathies!'

(I swear I'm not That Guy. I was properly socialized. Relatively properly, anyway.)

i mean

that is the essential soul of what is good and necessary about cliché, that phrase

it insulates from all of the agonies of misunderstanding of intent or delivery that can arise in just about any phrased or unphrased human interaction and delivers the absolutest clarity and intent, in the most widely recognised formula available, to people least able at that time to process much of anything except perhaps a presence and the delivery of such a phrase.

you would have to have many things wrong with you to not understand implicitly the utility of such a phrase for the circumstances imo

Yeah, ordinarily I appreciate people who avoid formulaic speech, and who can come up with something a trifle more daring at a party than "what do you do?".

But at my mom's funeral two years ago, I found I was not craving variety and creativity in what people said; if someone said something formulaic I found I was relieved and pleased.

I fear that my horribly-formed 'joke' may have provoked the very agony of which deems speaks.

I was bantering with Doc C, do u see

i got it, OL!

but glad it inadvertently prompted dmac and YMP, who articulated something important and an experience i've shared.

if you ever find yourself thinking "how can i condole with somebody in an original and non-cliched way?" then you should strongly consider fucking yourself for eternity

And really, my initial post wasn't exactly fueled by the shit being annoyed out of me. It was more the experience of hearing a word over and over until it sounds like random phonemes disconnected from context and meaning. I'd heard and said 'morning' like twelve times within a five-minute stretch and thought 'huh, humans r weird'.

"convo" for conversation