What are some words/phrases you wish people would stop using
when they actually mean something else? Euphemisms and the like.
A friend told me he wishes people would stop saying
“LGBT” in lieu of
“gay and lesbian”.
His argument was that, when the term
“LGBT” is used, it almost never relates to an issue affecting transgender people. It's usually something specifically to do with gay and lesbian people. Therefore, he argued, people should say
“lesbian and gay issues” instead of
“LGBT issues”. He also said that almost no one ever publicly identifies as bisexual, so having a letter abbreviating their name is mere tokenism.
A personal pet peeve of mine is the term
“Islamophobia”. As an atheist, I am quite anti-Islam, but also anti-Christianity, anti-Hinduism, anti-Scientology, etc.
“Islam” is just a collection of ideas, and should be subject to the same criticism as any other, whether it's Christianity, Marxism or Vegetarianism.
“Islamophobia” is being trotted out by pseudo-intellectuals to refer to anti-Muslim prejudice, for which I have no time. Take the case of the
Muslim woman on the flight who was denied an unopened can of coke, because, apparently, it could be used as a weapon. This was considered
“Islamophobia”, but really, the flight attendant probably didn't know the first thing about Islam.
She just knew the passenger was a Muslim, and didn't want to give her an unopened can, which – if she didn't treat other passengers identically – probably was
anti-Muslim prejudice. Don't call it this silly neologism
“Islamophobia”.
Could you imagine the howls of laughter if someone criticised the validity of the resurrection of Jesus and was called “Christianophobic”?
What are some other euphemistic phrases you wish people would stop using, and what would you like them to use instead?
