What cliches, phrases, words, terminology do you hate?

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What words, cliches, phrases, slang, etc. do you just absolutely hate, are overused or find asinine? Here are some words I can't stand.....

*inner-city /urban /at-risk /disadvantaged /low-income

Why don't people just go ahead and say, "African-American" because 9 times out of 10, that's whom they're refering to. I've never heard of a group of poor white kids with failing grades living in Manhattan being called any of these. To me, it's just another way of saying "those people", giving the people helping them a feeling of superiority.

*Ultra-Concervative

Please just save the attempt to make bigotry more platable. note: I am not indicating the Republican party and all other conservatives.

*Outgoing /aggressive /go-getter /team-player

Qualities found on most job descriptions nowadays. In other words, Aspies need not apply. Why has being extroverted become more valuable than credentials, experience and intelligence?

*Family Values

Meaning; Suburban, protestant, middle-upper class, nuclear family, stay-at-home mom who home schools the kids, non diverse, heterosexual, wives be subservient to your husbands, everything deviating from this is evil, values.

*inspirational

Why does this always pertain to stories in a Christian context? There's plenty that's "inspirational" and about human struggles, successes and doesn't have anything to do with religion.

*ret*d
Do I even need to explain this one?

*special

Lately, I've noticed NTs using this word ("He's so special") to refer to one who acts dumb or says something stupid. I guess they think using "special" instead of "ret*d" is more politically correct. No it's not!

*"God's going to heal you of depression/anxiety/AS/bi-polar/ect. if you only have enough faith. Then you wouldn't have to take all those pills."

No one in their right mind would say this to someone with hypertension, diabetes, sickle cell, down syndrome or any genetic condition. In other words, it's a back handed way of saying my illness/neurological differences are my fault and I deserve it due to having little faith in God.

*Any NT slang I'm castigated for not knowing or using.

Look, just because you want to be sheep and talk like everyone else to look "cool" doesn't give you the right to dictate how I should speak.


*Heart-breaking /Heart-renching /Heart-warming /Heart-pumping /Heart-stopping....you get the idea.

Please come up with something different. You wouldn't say, "Pancreas Churning", "Kidney-Infecting", "Stomach-Pumping", "Spleen-tearing" or "Ovary-busting".

*Referring to every neighborhood that's majority black as the "Ghetto".

My mother, before she divorced, lived in a subdivision that was almost all black that had homes the size of small mansions and had wealthy pro-football players, executives and professionals as residents. It was so safe my mother could leave the front door unlocked and garage door wide open.

*More to come

Last edited by nirrti_rachelle on 25 Sep 2005, 3:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Personally I've never understood the term "African american" (I am British) I think what puzzles me about the term is that there are white africans in some countries, eg, south Africa, but I only ever hear it refering to black people. Would a white south African living in the states be classed as "African american"?

Oh noooo. He would just be "American".

Most human resources people are definite extroverted NTs. They find someone most like themselves to be the best candidate for the job, not necessarily someone who would be most skilled at what that job entails. A computer programmer should be able to cooperate with other programmers on the team, but a programmer obviously doesn't need the kind of people skills a manager or salesperson needs. Extroverts find mixing into the work culture to be an important indicator of job success, though, because they think anyone who does otherwise is emotionally unhealthy, and obviously emotionally disturbed individuals will not be consistently productive individuals. So goes their thinking, I assume.

Personally I like the term "ghetto" to describe a group which only has few members. Like a horror novel which has a small cult of readers but no mainstream sucess "it's in the horror ghetto". I just like the sound of it for some reason..

Ghetto usually refers to the most poor part of a town doesn't it? Living in a mostly white community, my neighborhood is somtimes referred to as a ghetto because it is where the majority of the "not necessarily rich" people live. That's slowly changing. For whatever reason, rich peole like living near drugs. Ignornace is bliss, eh? Ghetto is a funny sounding word though.

I get the impression it has more to do with a concentration of a particular ethnicity, than economics, but it does now have implications of poverty.

I hate the way people in the media and government use the terms "terror" and "insurgency"
A "war on terror" makes no sense to me. Isn't terror sort of the key to war ?

Those people with the car bombs were known as Iraquis until someone invaded their country and overthrew their government.
But we can't call them Iraquis because that's who we went to "liberate"

I hate the N-word,"ret*d","sissy",and "p****".I'm sure there is more.I will come back when I think of some more.

-SpaceCase

I never liked the phrase "my bad." It sounds like something that would come from a child just learning how to talk.

Yeah,really!

-SpaceCase

I take it to be a colloquial translation of the Latin phrase mea culpa.

Yeah that pisses me off too.

I personally hate it when americans say they're "pissed" instead of "pissed off". In New Zealand "pissed" means drunk.

I love the phrase "my bad". I don't know why, I just do.

The one that really drives me up the wall (sorry if anyone's bugged by that cliche) is "there's someone out there for everyone". Sorry, I've heard that way too many times and it doesn't change the fact that I want a girlfriend badly.

Hahaha...I say "pissed" or "pissed off", mostly just "pissed".

Small talk in general annoys me. I don't understand the point of asking "how are you" if you don't really expect an honest answer.

"Smile!" - I used to get this one a lot as a kid. My office mate will tell the guy next door that he needs to smile more, and she'll say the same thing about our boss. She complains about him looking angry. I've told her repeatedly that he's very matter-of-fact, very busy with his work, and that sort of thing, but she still doesn't get it.

"You'll change your mind when you are older" - I usually get that one in regards to not wanting children, but I've also gotten it about being an atheist. I love having my opinions invalidated because of my age.

"ignorant" - I don't hate the word itself, but I don't like it when it's applied to people simply because they disagree. The same goes for Nazi, intolerant, etc.

Oh ffs I get that all the time, too.

I'm like I don't want to get married, and I don't want children.

"You'll change your mind when you are older"

You don't seem to get it. I don't want to get married, and I don't want children.

Why would I change my mind? Alot of girls have wante dto get married since they were very young. I never have even thought about it or cared.

I wouldn't want to thrust my genes on a poor child. he/she doens't deserve it.