Buzzwords, catch phrases and assumptions. Living in a Trolls Paradise

I can't be the only person here at ATS who is absolutely sick and tired of hearing all the latest lingo, buzzwords, catch phrases, just to be used as a tool of insult towards a party, person or opposition not liked. Talk about a shortcut to thinking for oneself and a lack of personal responsibility to provide substance to give any credibility for one's dislike of something.
The biggest irritation I have here these days is that if you speak any criticism toward say a president you must have certainly been a supporter of the other nominated person they ran against.
Lately, I get the feeling I'm back in elementary school playing in a sandbox without any toys, just a bunch of treats all the stray cats left in here the night before. End Rant

TRIGGERED

a reply to: robbeh

Touche

a reply to: HarumphHarumph

I am finding that to even take a position of neutrality, a position that does not automatically condemn the other side immediately ignites vitriolic responses.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Yea , I mean like who can play devils advocate now .

Whatever 👍

a reply to: HarumphHarumph

My best teacher in high school was a man I had for Senior Literature. Besides having us read the classics of Western literature, he also guided us in how to write papers, papers that we would need to be able to write if we went on to college. In papers, he had a pet peeve.

This was the use of clichés. Hackneyed phrases and slogans that people throw around in daily use. He said what you just said. That by doing that, using clichés was not just a shortcut to thinking but more, that they actually stopped ones ability to develop critical thought processes and would stymie our minds to a degree that we would not be able to be fully functioning adults. That was 1965.

Over the years I have seen more and more of the sloganeering. Advertising flourished with slogans so that consumers would not think like adults but rather like children. Politicians use them to get us to vote for them.

As TV time became more and more costly, the time allowed for information dispersal became shorter and shorter and the birth of the sound byte became necessary to sum up quickly to allow for more commercial time.

I think what we are seeing today is a result. People gather collections of these sound bytes, these slogans and just pop them out when given the chance. We can see this here all the time. It's predictable in so many threads, the same slogans come up time after time you can almost count them on your fingers. Like the ticking of a clock.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

These forms are more about banter then literature and so the memes and slogans although over done are ok I guess .Seems that one line sentences are no longer necessary and you can compact a funny term like Triggered as a stand alone statement . .

I agree with you. I am so tired of reading about snowflakes and triggers. The crumbling infrastructure across the US is driving the trolls out from under their bridges and onto ATS.

a reply to: HarumphHarumph
At the same time, "Fascist" is an even older over-used buzzword.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Clearly

a reply to: DISRAELI

The hell it is.

Its a word which describes a specific, toxic attitude, which informs poor behaviour on the part of persons who can accurately be described as such. Its legitimate as the day is long during summer.

a reply to: TrueBrit
I have also heard it used by left-wing students (in various decades) to mean "anyone who is not a socialist".
Once the word has been watered down to that extent, all its value as a criticism has been taken out of it.
That is when it becomes a meaningless buzzword.

I know this post won't make it very far or get alot of comments as legitimate as it is. That would mean way to many people would have to give up the addiction of blurting out nonsense they read in other online forums to use for themselves to feel relevant.

I should invent "Politicandy" candy with wrappers that have new buzzwords and political catch phrases written on the inside that can be handed out and thrown from floats during political events. That'd probably make me a millionaire. The concept worked for fortune cookies and bazooka Joe bubble gum.

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: HarumphHarumph

My best teacher in high school was a man I had for Senior Literature. Besides having us read the classics of Western literature, he also guided us in how to write papers, papers that we would need to be able to write if we went on to college. In papers, he had a pet peeve.

This was the use of clichés.

My least-liked but also "best" teacher in high school deducted a full-letter grade from our weekly, 500-word composition paper if the word "there" appeared. That single rule forced me to strive for reader-understanding, not expediency when writing. Forty years later seeing that word in something I'm reading (or writing) makes me cringe and I pause to mentally restructure the sentence.

As a centrist who didn't care for either candidate or the nastiness that has come between civilians with the election, I fully agree with your disdain for this kind of petty "tomfoolery". Yes I think that's the buzzword I'll start using now.

But in all seriousness, it does get old.

Oh well, we can vent here about it

-Alee

a reply to: HarumphHarumph

Agreed. There is a place for the words when used sparingly for a little humor but lately it's used when some one can't come up with an intelligent argument for an opponent. I made a thread on how to do it yesterday here

a reply to: HarumphHarumph

We keep spending most our lives living in a trolls paradise.

The following passages were taken from a website regarding "gifted" children, speaking of "buzzwords". But I believe the meaning behind them has broader application.

" “Every child is gifted; they just unwrap their gifts at different times.” That statement sounds wonderful and makes most people feel good. It also seems to make perfect sense – as long as you don’t think about it too deeply. And that’s the problem with this statement and others like it. They appeal to our emotions and don’t invite us to think about what the statement actually means. This one tells us nothing about what giftedness is or what it means to be gifted."

"Consider again the statement. When you move past the cliched thinking that sounds so good,you begin to see how meaningless the statement is. It’s actually worse than meaningless. It appeals to emotions, which then prevents us from thinking rationally about the concept of giftedness. And when we can’t think rationally about giftedness, we can’t think about how to provide what our gifted children need."