Post B1N4e8Tr02TTd02QNs by miblo@mas.to
(DIR) More posts by miblo@mas.to
(DIR) Post #B1N2A6OK0FbeYK09tA by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-12-18T10:47:40Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
What is the purpose of jargon? What does it glorify? what does it obscure?"conducted a lethal kinetic strike""killed people with a bomb"
(DIR) Post #B1N2Ve5NvGHp8TPtr6 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-12-18T10:51:34Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
"lethal kinetic strike"I have more respect for a phrase like "waste disposal technician" (garbage man)
(DIR) Post #B1N2ZgvTIyUr6Pi1ke by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-12-18T10:52:17Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Why can ya'll just say what you are really doing? Are you ashamed? I would be ashamed if I were you. I get it.
(DIR) Post #B1N2gpWHkgZZmaKfUu by noodlemaz@med-mastodon.com
2025-12-18T10:53:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird obfuscation. Removal of responsibility and humanity. Blurring the target, avoiding blame.
(DIR) Post #B1N2yoRuTGaPftrPyi by stancarey@mastodon.ie
2025-12-18T10:56:42Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird In this case it's euphemism, but some jargon is necessary and useful
(DIR) Post #B1N34VUFsvD0bOfm8u by wmd@chaos.social
2025-12-18T10:57:42Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird politics, also outside of war, in its very core and to the full extend of the meaning of the word politics.
(DIR) Post #B1N3rlZqqmJoh8mMro by farah@beige.party
2025-12-18T11:06:43Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Jargons are only useful if they’re universal and aid in communication instead of hindering. Scientific terms come to mind
(DIR) Post #B1N4e8Tr02TTd02QNs by miblo@mas.to
2025-12-18T11:15:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Susie Dent covered this in Dent's Modern Tribes: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/susie-dent/dents-modern-tribes/9781473623897/Been a while since I read it, but the general gist that's stuck with me is the idea of community cohesion, bonding insiders, and keeping outsiders out.
(DIR) Post #B1N5bVrBjLKFDKGXJ2 by ira@beige.party
2025-12-18T11:26:13Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird euphemisms are a super interesting field: by seeing where they exist in multitudes, we see what makes us uncomfortable to talk about directly: money, sex, death, human waste/fluids… and so on.
(DIR) Post #B1N6wnuFuy8bEFPu1w by 3janeTA@beige.party
2025-12-18T11:41:14Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird i agree with everyone saying this is obfuscation, certainly in this instance. I also see a strong trend in business and life for people to want to sound smart and precise by using bigger words vs smaller, to use complex phrasing instead of simple. At least I assume that’s the motivation. Utilize vs. use.Have a good rest of your day.Impactful.plus passive voice, which is about avoiding direct accountability for who did what. Though that’s probably compliance writing style in addition to to the inflation of grandeur by bigger word choice.I don’t like it. It doesn’t make things more clear. It makes them hard to read. Say what you mean. Speak plainly!
(DIR) Post #B1NBWh4nBllwHsiLaK by WTL@mastodon.social
2025-12-18T12:31:58Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I’m not sure they have the intellectual capacity for shame. 🤔🤷🏻
(DIR) Post #B1NBrwpnnMujF3pzCi by steely_glint@chaos.social
2025-12-18T12:36:23Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird It's a classic example of Orwell's observation:"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_and_the_English_Language
(DIR) Post #B1NEKhh5MmRaafbG1Q by graydon@canada.masto.host
2025-12-18T13:03:57Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird "kinetic strike" is the current version of the Vietnam era "hard kill". (As distinct from "soft kill", ~"has to go home because of systems failure".)It's a consequence of the GWoT; avoiding "how is a secret" issues from excessive classification while sounding forceful and definite in the announcement.It's also an internal claim of territory; "a real military attack" as opposed to squishy and indirect infrastructure disruption or messing with computers or a psyop.
(DIR) Post #B1NEPoHAK34AS4uX8C by funkula@goblin.camp
2025-12-18T13:04:54Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird they thought murdering people would make them finally feel good, but it didn't, so now they're trying to feel good by inventing cool ways to describe the murder
(DIR) Post #B1NGN9MxdmjkuaTt7Q by aburtch@triangletoot.party
2025-12-18T13:26:51Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @5ciFiGirl obfuscation seems to be the entire purpose. “See, what I did really wasn’t that bad because it doesn’t sound like anything real when I say it with jargon.”
(DIR) Post #B1NNG22XBzcrpdTnJw by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-12-18T14:43:57Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@retech I especially dislike the technical nature of these euphemisms: it implies a precision and omniscience that simply isn’t possible. It’s just killing people. I get that this is what armies do, but in theory there is a reason. By making it technical do they think the absence of a coherent reason won’t matter?Yes.