The most abused word in the English language?

Only one word? I think words in general are abused, people talk to damned much and yet they say very little. Reminds me of something my mom used to say to get me to stop talking so much. "God gave you two ears and only one mouth for a very good reason. Why don't you go ponder on that for a while quietly"

I think people like to latch on to words, they give them something to believe or attach feelings to that they don't know how to express otherwise. Plus certain words are a crutch for us lazy folks who don't always like to find a more appropriate one. It seems to me that there is a new catch word or phrase ever 5-10 years that gets overused. I think more than anything is that people as a whole have become complacent. Just downright lazy people who let others think for us. We have given away responsibility of our thoughts to others that we assume do it better than ourselves, so why bother. We listen to the media because we trust them and then regurgitate what we have been told. It isn't so much that it is intentional I don't think, but habit. We don't stop to think for ourselves, we don't stop to even realize we are just repeating what we heard. We have given up so much of our responsibility that our minds have become a bit dull. Eventually we will be on our own without anyone telling us what to think and we are put in a position to wake up and think for ourselves. It's different for everyone and for some it may never happen.

It's like I tell my kids, you can't change other people, all you can do is not be like them. All you can do is be yourself, think for yourself and do what you know is right. I have told my kids from the very get go to question everything and everyone, even if it is me! Don't just trust something because someone said it was so, especially teachers and people of authority. Don't be fooled by catch words that cause you to not think for yourself. Propaganda my lily white butt.. In my opinion the sort of brainwashing that people talk about takes a long long time. So at what point do we take responsibility for not thinking for ourselves? Laziness caused us to sit down and watch tv and to listen to everything we were told until we believed it, so who is to blame? I say we are!

Nope. The most abused word in the english language is the F-bomb, and british use it religiously. Gordon Ramsey says it 2 or 3 times in a sentance.

The F-bomb is used heavily in the United States as well.

My "favorite" quote from Edward Bernays' book "Propaganda" (Sigmund Freud's nephew and the darling American corporations in the 20th century). Kinda says it all:

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind."

Id have to say within the last 20 years, at least in the US, its not so much a singular word as a genre. Terrorist, extremist, rebel, combatant, etc. All words used to define someone with a different viewpoint that is willing to stand for their beliefs.

Probably the word democracy. So many people call the USA a democracy when it isn't. It's a constitutional republic.

Or socialist or communist or capitalism, very few even know what the words mean anymore

And the word free market

I would have thought that the most used and abused word in the English language was "Racist".

Come to think of it, I am quite positive that it is....

reply to post by theBigToe


So what I gather from this thread is that you are pro American, vocal about it to the point people call you brainwashed and mentioning propaganda, and you aren't happy about it?

I don't think the word is used too much, it just makes more sense when you realize how common propaganda is.

Any who "believes in America" is obviously brainwashed by propaganda. That is like the definition of the state.

I think the word Love is most abused.

Very few seem to differentiate between the words like, love, sex, & lust and use them interchangeably. And even worse... The word love is suppose to be a pure feeling of well being towards people but thanks to propaganda (just thought I'd throw that in there) and mass marketing it is used to associate lust-like feelings towards inanimate objects such as cars and food. Isn't saying "I like this food very much" much better and less ambiguous than using "I love food"? Same goes with "I love cars" or "I love computers" -- all abusing the word love.

I know, I know, scoffers are going to say "but there are different meanings to love".

Maybe.

But the hallmarks of a powerful language would be clear words with clear definitions where few if any words overlap. I read somewhere that a perfect language would contain little if any grammar and distinct words that make communication clear and effective. The english language seems to have hundreds of overlapping words which can cause a great deal of confusion if not heard in proper context. IMO doublespeak is the bane of humanity and a powerful tool used by the powers that be for mind control.

reply to post by dizziedame

To that list we must surely add: See Saw Seen When the word seen is used incorrectly I cringe and feel sick.

This bothers me so much more than (I always screw up then and than) 'there', 'their' and 'they're'. It's something I have been noticing more and more on ATS.

I tend to agree with others that think the word 'love' is most abused.

My most abused word is not repeatable on this site but it starts with an 'F' and I need to knock it off. Also, 'also'.

Also, I am getting tired of 'viral' and 'meme'. It is rather amusing listening to people in real life trying to say 'meme' though.

How about 'awesome' as in inspiring awe - now put that with - I dunno - pizza as in 'this pizza is awesome'.

Really? Awesome? Perhaps I'm getting old.

I think the most misused word is FREE.

We constantly say how we are born free, live in the land of the free, fight for freedom etc. Yet we are born with debt, forced into the industrial economic machine. Our cell phones are personal locators, new vehicles can be shut down remotely from anywhere in the world by anyone who can gain access to the system. We are forced into an education system by way of the cultural norms and old fashioned intimidation " either go to college or join the army"(that is my families go to condescending threat anyway). These education systems are great for entering children into the world of thought, but the power of critical thinking is something that our society looks down upon. Not directly, mind you, in fact they outwardly tell us to ask questions, but when it comes to the real issues of where do I come from, where did god come from, where does our money really come from, who stands to profit from this action. These questions are stifled before they are even out of the mouth most times. We are told to accept them as if there were no other possible answer to the questions other than the one we are given.

We are proud people, most having concern for the fellow Americans, but we are not free. We have an illusion of freedom, not actual freedom. We cant go to the store and buy a pickup load of ammonium nitrate fertilizer with out ending up locked in a holding cell for domestic terrorism questioning. We have to wait days to be cleared by the government to buy a hand gun. We are forced to register for the draft in order to get a loan for college. Farmers are being sued by Big seed corporations, because the corporations seeded plants have infested the crops of farmers who have bred their own seeds for generations, for IP theft, because they have manipulated the judicial system into allowing them to patent a living thing. Which was NEVER supposed to happen.

We act free, we look free, and we think we are free(which is the greatest feat the government ever pulled) but we are not free, not truly.

And for those who say that we aren't propagandized. Then why is there 16 minutes of advertising for every hour of television, why are magazines and newspapers so full of advertising, why are there more billboards than trees now(exaggerating, obviously, but not by a whole lot in some places, ie Manhattan.) Corporations own the entire "free" world, they dictate what we wear, what we like, who we like, and what we buy. They have figured out how to make their idea seem like one that we created in our own mind. They have reinforced the idea of fitting in so hard that we put more effort into fitting in than to understanding why we do something. The celebrities are the cool kids of the world, and we are constantly trying to be like them. What happens if they weren't given free luxury cars, and clothing and exclusive resort stays? We might not covet them so dearly. The celebrities would probably buy them anyway, but this way the corporations can guarantee that they get them and are seen in their products.

Just because modern propaganda isn't the "jews have horns and will steal your money" crap that came from Nazi Germany doesn't mean that it isn't all around us droning it's way into our thoughts every moment of every day.

Propaganda is anything that is used to change someones ideas to fall inline with another persons.

Corporations run the world and we abandoned freedom right around the time we left the gold standard.

Freedom is an illusion.




Buttons up flame suit to the top.

So commercials are trying to brainwash you because they want you to buy a product and they advertise it? Is there something wrong with material possessions? Isnt that what all people aspire to have in their life? There is nothing wrong with being poor, but do people want to be poor? Or do they want to be successful? There is nothing wrong with that. And our system is a bit stacked, but find me a better alternative and I might be happy to agree that our system could use some rebuilding?

Yes commercials are trying to brain wash us. That is the very purpose of them. They aren't meant for the people who buy their products they are meant for the ones who do not. I.E. trying to change their mind, which is exactly what brain washing is, taking my ideas and replacing them with yours. It doesn't have to be as extreme as having wires hooked up to your temples until you believe you are bugs bunny's reincarnated spirit. That is just fear mongering to think of it in that way. In fact the advertisers would rather you think of brain washing as something out of a horror film or a cartoon, because that villainizes it and makes it absurd. Thus making the average person scoff at the idea that they are being propagandized.

Im really just very annoying that everybody who is against arguments like why Iran should be allowed to pursue nuclear energy always goes back to regurgitating the same thing when the conversation steers somewhere they dont like - they say youre "brainwashed by Western propaganda", especially when I get my news from the same exact places that everybody else using this site does. Seems like taking a different point of view these days is the equivalent to being brainwashed. I dont know how Human Rights watch groups are tools of the propaganda machine, and I dont know how perceiving governments controlled by Sharia to be evil fascists makes me an "evil, soulless sheep that has no empathy for other people".

When people cut out of conversations with answers like brainwashed by western propaganda, it just says that they haven't done enough of their own research to stand behind the statements they were trying to make as points in the argument. It makes me think that they are against what they deem as bad, and for what they deem to be good, but they don't know enough about either to make a real stand. This is blind faith, and should be avoided at all costs by every person alive.

Never swallow an answer, even if it is one you want to hear, always find out for yourself. Also it becomes a lot harder to argue when both sides know facts and has their own real opinions. Not just regurgitated remarks by Glen Beck or Bill Maher.

Evil is evil and good is good, that is black and white truth. But situations are always shades of gray, you can pepper a whole lot of lie in with a little bit of truth and a majority of people will believe it.