¿Que?
[sub]It’s a cheap joke, but somebody had to make it.[/sub]
Ever been to Miami?
I remember nearly getting into a fist fight with some guy in a bar when I said we were all homo sapients. He said gawd damned if HE was one of THOSE. So I retracted my statement and said that clearly he was the exception here. He was quite happy after that, though I’m glad that none of the other people around us pointed out what the hell I was talking about to him. Ignorance was bliss in his case…
-XT
I recall sitting in the lunchroom in jr. high – or maybe it was even high school – and hearing one guy get upset (and perhaps a bit embarrassed) when another kid bet him that he masticated probably 3 times a day.
I don’t recall where I heard this story, so I don’t vouch for its truth, but the short verson of it was a woman in tears in the company restroom for most of the morning because the big boss had sent out a memo congratulating her division on its accomplishments, but warning them that they could not stand pat, but had to continue pressing forward towards even greater improvements.
The woman’s name was Pat.
- Rick
It’s the popular trend at this time. Have you missed the examples set forth by our Commander in Chief, good ol’ GW.
Why shucks, it all the rage to be a good ol’ boy. So what if I can’t read maw. He done tried to kill’t my daddy an if’n it’s the last thing I do, I’m gonna get him. No matter what it costs, whether y’all like it or not.
He’s got them NUCULAR weapons doncha know. 
Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. 
Ahh that takes me back to when we first learned a homo sapien was a person. Dude your a homo…sapien (teacher can’t get mad!)
You should have tried harder to resist, since your comparison is inapposite. There is a great difference between mispronouncing a word and being ignorant of the meaning of a word or phrase.
Of course, you may well be able to supply a quote that shows such ignorance on the part of Mr. Bush, and save your point.
But as it stands now, you haven’t.
- Rick
So then, I assume you believe Mr. Bush to be an articulate speaker?
My point was not that GWB is ignorant.
It is this:
Because President Bush’s poor oratory skills are “acceptable” and since he represents US. We will reflect this behavior in our own.
If only at a subconscious level, many people will say, “the president gets away with it…”
I am not claiming that GWB is responsible for our speaking abilities. This is a coorelational relationship in the sense that HE also reflects a behavior that is found in the population as a whole.
In response to the OP, GWB has influenced our use of language by example. We now see that articulation is not a requirement for success AND perhaps even counterproductive.
There are many other reasons as well, of course. This is simply one that has brought it to our attention.
So, Rick I think my example was relevant to the OP.
**Dogface asked
So, can somebody explain to me how such incredible levels of inarticulation have become so popular among the “educated”?**
Unless of course you choose to define articulation in its narrowest sense.
Sorry if I offended… 
BTW I think my response is an actual attempt to answer the OP. Not that I didn’t enjoy the anecdotes posted by the other members.
t-keela, can you provide us with a specific instance in which GWB made exactly the sort of gaffe I originally mentioned?
And of course you’re assuming she misunderstood the question, and wasn’t simply giving you an honest answer?
Dogface I’ve been listening to GWB for many years. (see my location)
I have no cites at hand, I will see what’s available. Not that it’s really necessary since it’s not too important as to what type of mistake is made in conversation. It’s the fact that it is repeated with no attempt to correct the mistake. That is simply arrogance or ignorance. I’ve already said I don’t think he is ignorant. He’s just been playing the role as “Bubba” in Texas for so long he has become the character. As a result, others will follow suit.
Remember when Jimmy Carter was president? The whole damned country went “peanuts” (sorry bad pun) Anyway, there was even a damned sitcom “Carter Country”, and Alice/Flo w/ “Kiss my grits” and lots of other examples. The politicians were running around kissing ass and playing “bubba”. Not to mention half the people in the Whitehouse came from Georgia.
Because most of them spoke with a heavy southern accent it made the whole country sound like a bunch of hicks. (Sorry, no offense intended) I don’t think anyone can call Carter ignorant. But the fact is he was seen as naive if not simplistic at the very least. Yet the country as a whole was following the trend. Until the “Gipper” showed up of course.
Anyway, it’s late, I’ll get back with ya tomorrow and try to quote you some sources.
Meantime y’all have fun now ya hear.
Nah. I don’t use “niggardly” just to rouse people - but that is the main reason I use it.
The intended effect is to get people to wonder, “what is he really trying to say?”
Then there’s two options: they can figure out what I’m doing or they jump to the conclusion that I’m delivering a thinly-veiled racial slur. In the case that they figure it out, they’ll see that either a) the connotation is ambiguous enough to be dangerous to call me on it, or b) they’ll inspect my character, and realize that calling me a racist is baseless. In the case they jump to conclusions (whether they hear “niggardly” or “niggerly”), I merely have to a) say that the connotation is ambiguous or b) that I am, in thought and action, not racist.
So, I win!
I also use it because I think it’s a very useful qualifier. IMO, in my style, there’s no better word that describes that particular kind of miser. I could use another word, but again I get interesting side effects with this one. This is just my style; I like to poke and prod.
I’ve seen “self-deprecating” mangled into “self-defecating” on a few occasions. I remember reading in an old Rolling Stone in which Michael Stipe (of REM) admitted he did this until someone corrected him.
Absolutely right. It could be used in a racist way, just like almost any word. (Picture ** msmith537**'s old joke about “homo…sapien,” with some jerk saying “That kid is a real nigger…d.”) As always, the question is intent, since the word has a different root from the racial slur and sounds the same only by coincidence.
To rapidly change course, I’d say the root of the problem is that people are so damned sensitive these days. Sometimes people seem to look for excuses to be offended. (I do this too, I admit. But usually, I do it so I can make jokes about it.) We have de Jesus mistaking “classist” and “classicist,” but what about the racism bit? Did he actually have grounds for that, or was he just lumping those charges in there?
In the interest of using words that sound like slurs, I am now hearing Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, and the Banks children singing “Let’s go fly a kike.” I don’t make these things fly into my head; I’m just a really lousy guy. :dubious:
Dogface
Check this out
I haven’t gone through it but looked like quite a few examples.
As much as I feel unclean defending the renowned dillpickle Bush its only fair to point that your cite t-keela is an old joke that has just had the name swapped around. Those quotes are I believe from Dan Quayle.
Did your geometry teacher ever tell anyone to take the large wooden compass to the blackboard and circumcise circle “A”. Ah…circumscribe I mean.
Really happened.
Maybe on some but not all, I can recall a few of the examples. (BTW That was the first cite that popped up)
Hell, his ranch isn’t that far from here. It’s practically local news.
MoF he’s spoken at the fair here a few times…whatever, a friend of mine from high school is now our State Senator, he and GWB are friends.
So…argh to hell with it. I’m tired and this isn’t worth staying up for.
Google George Bush and inarticulate then dismiss the results you get. I will not waste my time arguing the man’s lack of oratory skills. That was one of a few premises upon which I would apply some psych. theories in an attempt to explain human behavior as observed by the OP.
If you think he IS articulate, cool…I’m not fighting w/ya on that.
g-nite
Yeah, those are all Quayle quotes, I think. Jeez, Bush has slipped up enough on his own. 
Bush misusing words? … Well, the best I can think of offhand is Ari Fleischer talking about “smoking mirrors” regarding Iraq. (Bites tongue very hard in an effort not to say that Bush has been misusing words like ‘compassionate’ and ‘weapons’ an awful lot…)