By Jon Bauer / Herald Opinion Editor
If you’ve wondered how dictionary publishers stay relevant an era of spellcheck, the Oxford English Dictionary’s annual announcement for Word of the Year should give you a hint. This year’s word is “rage bait” defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or offensive.”
Over the past year, according to the Oxford wordsmiths, the frequency of the use of “rage bait” spiked by a factor of three.
Can’t imagine why.
In other lures causing spleens to vent this week:
Department of ‘Defensive Much?’: Secretary of War (née Defense) Pete Hegseth has continued to come under fire for his part — or not his part — in the Sept. 2 strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea, during which a second strike was used to kill two men who survived the first strike, an apparent violation of the rules of war for the Trump administration’s undeclared war. At the same time, a Pentagon inspector general released a report finding that Hegseth used an unclassified device, his personal phone, to share details of a strike on Yemeni terrorists, revealing advanced details about when aircraft and missiles would be launched, unaware that an Atlantic magazine journalist had been included in the Signal chat. A Hegseth spokesman called the report a “TOTAL exoneration” that no classified information was shared, based on Hegseth’s claim that releasing the information declassified what he blurted out. “This matter is resolved and the case is closed,” the spokesman said.
Two comments: First, we’re waiting for a word from the folks at OED on what to call a war crime that occurs during an undeclared war; “undeclared war crime” is just confusing and “undeclared war war crime” is little better. Second, we suspect that Hegseth’s spokesman was the kid who took the “F” on his buddy’s middle school essay and deftly turned it into a blocky looking “A.”
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em: Hegseth, during discussions of his participation in the Sept. 2 strike, said the admiral who reportedly ordered the second strike has “my 100 percent support” and “I stand by the decisions he has made.” Earlier, Hegseth said he didn’t see the survivors in the initial video feed of the strike, citing “fire, smoke” and what he called “the fog of war,” before leaving for other meetings.
Hegseth then made his own military maneuver, laying down a smoke screen to conceal his exit from involvement.
Shame he missed out on all the January 6 Choir rehearsals: After a nearly five-year investigation, the FBI announced the arrest of a suspect in the investigation of two pipe bombs that were planted in front of the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Republican and Democratic parties on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
No motive was discussed, but Attorney General Pam Bondi said charges and prosecution would be expedited so President Trump could quickly grant the failed bomber a pardon.
Magical thinking: President Trump, after earlier trying to identify with consumers frustrated with a continuing sense that the cost of living is too high and calling himself the “affordability president,” changed tack and declared during a cabinet meeting that affordabilty was a “fake narrative” and ”con job” created by Democrats to gain voter support. “They just say the word,” he said. “It doesn’t mean anything to anybody. They just say it: affordability.”
If it’s that simple — say a word and magically change voters’ attitudes — Trump might try the same. Having researched the spells of Harry Potter, here’s a few incantations the president might try: To reduce inflation: “Reducto!” To increase the GDP: “Engorgio!” To erase the voters’ memories: “Obliviate!” However, wizarding voters might respond with “Langlock!” which causes the target’s tongue to stick to the roof of his mouth.
When we said ‘use your words,’ we should have been more clear: President Trump, using a school-yard taunt that fell out of favor a good 30 years ago, in a social media post referred to former Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz as “the seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota,” then declining to apologize for the slur two days later when he said “I think there’s something seriously wrong with him.”
Since we’re all about building vocabulary, let’s get some guidance from the good folks at Merriam-Webster — spreading the dictionary love around — who advise that “retarded” is dated and “increasingly considered offensive.” Instead, “the use of intellectually disabled is now preferred.” So, Mr. President, how intellectually disabled of you.
Trump also ‘increasingly considered offensive’: Trump’s slur against Walz was in service of his criticism of the governor’s lack of oversight regarding fraud involving that state’s social service programs, which involved some Somali immigrants. Trump turned his ire to the whole of those from the East African nation, calling them “garbage,” then focusing on U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who became a U.S. citizen 25 years ago after fleeing war in Somalia as a refugee. “She’s garbage,” continued the president. “Her friends are garbage.”
We’d like to apologize and retract our previous use of “intellectually disabled” to describe the president; as that typically refers to those who persevere despite a developmental disability that was not acquired by choice. Trump appears to have come by his disability through sheer lack of humanity. (Instead, see definitions for “racist,” “misogynist,” “bigot,” “sexist,” “jingoist” “Islamophobe” and “xenophobe,” each illustrated with a figure of Trump.
Email Jon Bauer at jon.bauer@heraldnet.com.
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