nemorosa wrote:
The recent (last 5 years or so) trend in the use of the word "passion", especially by presenters at the BBC who really should know better.
It is both cringe worthy and infuriating at the same time to hear people say "I'm so passionate about..."
The word should be used in the sexual or religious sense but no other. Instead it is attributed to the most mundane things. I almost foam at the mouth with rage.
What is wrong with "I really like..." or "I enjoy..." ?
Similarly, here in the US the word "love" gets thrown around too much. In my opinion, it should only be attributed to things which bring about strong feelings in people, like family members, pets, romantic partners, religious figures or even special interests. Instead people use it to talk about things they mildly enjoy, such as McDonald's fries for example. When people use the word so much, it kind of loses its impact when you want to talk about people or things you truly
do love.
Also, I had no idea that using the word "passion" to describe things people enjoy makes some people so upset. I sometimes use the word as a substitute for "special interest" or "obsession", since for me the term "special interest" implies that an autistic person's interests are somehow superior to an NT's, which I don't believe. I used to use the word "obsession" a lot, but some people have pointed out that it causes confusion with OCD. My mom once said of my special interests, "You're not obsessed, you're just passionate." That's when I started using the word "passion" to describe my interests. I sincerely didn't know that it upsets people.