issues; the X from Hell

[Alison Murie]

>Similar to psychobabblish "issue" is the pejoration or adapting of the
>word "situation" to mean 'crisis, dangerious development'. When I first
>started noticing that usage on TV cop shows a few years ago, it seemed
>like (maybe) a ploy to sound un-panicky in an urgent radio or telephone
>transmission.
>
>(Has this already been discussed here?)
>
>--Charlie
>_______________________________________________
>
>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 09:21:40 -0800
>>From: "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
>>Subject: issues; the X from Hell
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>>the latest Funny Times (Dec. 2006) has an excerpt (p. 18) from Jon
>>Winokur's Encyclopedia Neurotica (2004), with two items  of local
>>interest:
>>
>>1. the entry:
>>
>>issues
>
>>Grade-A _psychobabble_ for what used to be called "problems."
>>
>>arnold
>
 ~~~~~~~~
"Condition" is another of these.  All these have a sort of euphemizing
effect, neutralizing the impact of actually stating what the problem,
crisis, or disease involved is. As usually happens with euphemisms, they
all tend to throw a shadow back on the substitute words.
AM

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