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Topic: OMG — Get Over Yourselves!! Post ReplyPost New Topic
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 11:34am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

FoxNews

How many WW2 stories refer to BOMBERS attacking London or Berlin or Tokyo? Should THOUSAND BOMBER RAIDS be called 5000 Crewmen Raids?

How about when a CAR slams into pedestrians? When a SUBMARINE torpedoes a ship?

The World is so fuctup.

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James Woodcock
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Joined: 21 September 2007
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 11:44am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

I want to go home now please. Back to a place where people had brains & didn’t take offence @ everything & could use their brains to interpret what was being said instead of this screaming @ perceived false situations.

Your examples really show how ridiculous this illiterate, self important, easily offended race is becoming.
& what they fail to realise, is the terms they now insist we use will eventually be ruled offensive because they too will gain stigma as new terms are invented (sorry, I’ve joined two separate areas here, but I do think they come from a common source)
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Peter Martin
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 12:04pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

The outrage is ridiculous. I do find it an odd choice of language to write about the planes taking aim though. The planes rammed into the buildings. But the planes didn't aim themselves. Might be a case of NYT Time style guidelines warning against the passive voice, so that the journalist didn't want to write about the planes being aimed.
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Koroush Ghazi
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 5:34pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Mistakes all round. Poor use of English, morons who took offense at it, and idiots trying to make political capital out of it.

 John Byrne wrote:
How about when a CAR slams into pedestrians? When a SUBMARINE torpedoes a ship?


Fair enough, but try saying "A car took aim at pedestrians" and it becomes awkward. A professional journalist should know that "Airplanes were aimed at" is more accurate and only six characters longer (for Twitter).

The biggest problem facing the English language is the 24 hour news cycle. There would have been a time when the deadline was a certain number of minutes before going to print. Now the deadline is literally ASAP. So aside from declining educational standards, aside from the language-mangling that character-limited outlets like Twitter force on us, these journalists are hammering out their various outputs at a frenetic pace, leaving little time for eloquence or editing.
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Fair enough, but try saying "A car took aim at pedestrians" and it becomes awkward. A professional journalist should know that "Airplanes were aimed at" is more accurate and only six characters longer (for Twitter).

•••

But what if we says the bombers or the sub “took aim at”? Not so awkward. And not with the car, either, assuming a deliberate act.

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Joe Zhang
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Posted: 12 September 2019 at 5:32am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Some airplane did something on 9/11.
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

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Posted: 12 September 2019 at 7:22am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

I think back to Olive Oyle's father in the POPEYE movie, taking offense at everything and constantly grumbling "You owe me an apology!" The internet has turned a large portion of the population into wannabe martyrs, trying to put themselves at the center of any event.

As if 9/11 wasn't bad enough!

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Sergio Saavedra
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Posted: 12 September 2019 at 7:45am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Joe, it wasn't some airplane who did something! This is offensive! ;-)
I don't know, it seems like in the last 10 years or so, there are more and more people who get up in the morning wondering what they are going to get offended by today.
"If someone points to the moon, I'll just look at the finger looking for something offensive."
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Jason Scott
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Posted: 12 September 2019 at 9:05am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

"If someone points to the moon, I'll just look at the finger looking for something offensive."

Heh! I know this isn't quite what you mean Sergio but that line reminded me of when I worked in a cinema, and at one point orders came down from on high, that we were no longer allowed to point when guiding people to their seats. Because apparently someone in the hall might think they were being pointed at, and take offence! Lol!

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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 12 September 2019 at 9:14am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Everyone remember the cover of ALPHA FLIGHT 1, showing the team charging thru the midst of other Marvel luminaries as Guardian says “One side, superheroes...”?

Well, I received a letter from an angry fan pointing out that “for your information Alpha Flight happen to be superheroes too!”

sigh

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