# What an outstanding inaugural speech! **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 20, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639 "2017-01-20T17:20:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/201 "2017-01-21T20:47:31Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Picture a remake of “The Thing With Two Heads”, with Trump in the Rosie Grier role and Putin in the Ray Milland role. Actually, what I’m picturing is a remake of “Deliverance”, with Trump in the Ned Beatty role and Putin in the Bill McKinney role. ---
**Author:** ![CatandMouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@CatandMouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatandMouse)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/202 "2017-01-21T20:49:22Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > I tried to watch. Turned to the right channel, but it was just some weird Russian puppet show. I didn’t even make an attempt to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/203 "2017-01-21T21:00:52Z")
Evidently, Trump got a Standing Bloviation. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/204 "2017-01-21T22:26:23Z")
is that what the kids call it, these days? We used to call it “cutting the cheese”. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/205 "2017-01-21T22:27:44Z")
So did I miss the part where it was supposedly written or cowritten by a white nationalist…? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/206 "2017-01-21T22:46:04Z")
Steve Bannon, late of _Blightbart_. Issues of “some of the speech”, “most” and “all” remain unresolved. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/207 "2017-01-23T00:26:26Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > But be warned that deliberately choosing to use that word when you know that many less well-informed people will be startled and/or offended by the sound of it doesn’t make you look erudite or principled. It makes you look at best like kind of a pompous asshole, and at worst like a full-on racist troll. > [/hijack] So anyone who is even slightly literate now has to be held at ransom by the ignorant? All my life “the jig is up” had no racist connotation and I don’t “deliberately” choose to use that phrase. Instead, according to your rules, I have to “deliberately” choose **not** to use that phrase. I’ve also experienced the same thing with “rule of thumb” as a phrase. So, according to you, I’m now supposed to kowtow to the misinformed, uneducated and illiterate. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/208 "2017-01-23T01:18:01Z")
> [@sleestak](#): > > In other words pander to the stupid people in case they, in their stupidity, might be offended. > [@velomont](#): > > So anyone who is even slightly literate now has to be held at ransom by the ignorant? […] So, according to you, I’m now supposed to kowtow to the misinformed, uneducated and illiterate. :dubious: Folks, I don’t **make** language change, I’m just describing some of the changes that happen over time. Nor am I claiming that false cognates or folk etymologies are a good thing. I know that “niggardly” is not etymologically linked to the n-word, nor “the jig is up” to any other racist slur. Racial sensitivity doesn’t require us to deny substantiated facts about word origins. But it does require people not to expect other people to be mind-readers. The fact is that a lot of people like using words like “niggardly” precisely because they hope that people they think of as “stupid” and “ignorant” will be offended by the sound of them, and will then look foolish when they smugly explain the term’s real meaning. And since nobody can read your mind when you use such a word to tell whether or not you’re being that kind of asshole, you should expect that some people will assume that you **are** being that kind of asshole. If you don’t want that to happen, then consider using a different word. Such smart, literate, educated, well-informed people should have no trouble coming up with synonyms as necessary. Interesting, though, that you regard such minor examples of linguistic flexibility as tantamount to “pandering” or “being held to ransom” or “kowtowing”. Gee, if it’s really that important to you, go ahead and use the word “niggardly” and **let** some people assume you’re an asshole. What do I care? What I suspect you’re really after is some kind of reassurance that because such words **aren’t** intrinsically racist slurs, and you don’t **mean** to be an asshole by using them, therefore you won’t ever **look** like an asshole for using them. Sorry, but in the real world of sociolinguistic evolution, there are no such guarantees, and it’s no use blaming me for it. In any case, why are you directing all your resentment at the so-called “stupid” or “ignorant” or “misinformed” or “uneducated” or “illiterate” people for often reacting negatively to words that sound like racial slurs, instead of directing some of it at the assholes and racists who are constantly inventing and employing **actual** racial slurs, and deliberately using words that sound like them for the sake of deniability while still conveying the idea of a racial slur? **Those** are the folks who created this linguistic minefield in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mighty\_Boosh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_mighty_boosh/32/1755_2.png) [@The\_Mighty\_Boosh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mighty_Boosh)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/209 "2017-01-23T01:30:58Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > :dubious: > > In any case, why are you directing all your resentment at the so-called “stupid” or “ignorant” or “misinformed” or “uneducated” or “illiterate” people for often reacting negatively to words that sound like racial slurs, instead of directing some of it at the assholes and racists who are constantly inventing and employing **actual** racial slurs, and deliberately using words that sound like them for the sake of deniability while still conveying the idea of a racial slur? **Those** are the folks who created this linguistic minefield in the first place. I have to say, your idea that we avoid words that aren’t racial slurs because they sound like racial slurs to some people in some contexts sounds pretty much exactly like you are creating a linguistic minefield. Changing the language in order to isolate those people who use such words to offend the wrong way to approach the problem, if there actually is a problem to approach, and I’m not sure there is. Applying racial connotations to language which was hitherto free of it (as in “The jig is up”) plays exactly into the hands of those who claim that there is a politically-correct linguistic fascism sweeping the land. It’s stupid, in every conceivable way. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mighty\_Boosh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_mighty_boosh/32/1755_2.png) [@The\_Mighty\_Boosh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mighty_Boosh)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/210 "2017-01-23T01:57:35Z")
> [@The\_Mighty\_Boosh](#): > > I have to say, your idea that we avoid words that aren’t racial slurs because they sound like racial slurs to some people in some contexts sounds pretty much exactly like you are creating a linguistic minefield. Changing the language in order to isolate those people who use such words to offend IS the wrong way to approach the problem, if there actually is a problem to approach, and I’m not sure there is. Applying racial connotations to language which was hitherto free of it (as in “The jig is up”) plays exactly into the hands of those who claim that there is a politically-correct linguistic fascism sweeping the land. It’s stupid, in every conceivable way. Speaking of linguistic minefields… lightly edited to add some semblance of sense to this babble. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/211 "2017-01-23T02:00:39Z")
> [@The\_Mighty\_Boosh](#): > > I have to say, your idea that we avoid words that aren’t racial slurs because they sound like racial slurs to some people in some contexts sounds pretty much exactly like you are creating a linguistic minefield. Sorry, but I’m not. The minefield is there as soon as a significant number of people perceive offensiveness or ambiguity in the use of a term which was not originally regarded as offensive. By the time a typical language user like me gets around to even noticing any such ambiguity, the minefield already exists. You seem to be regarding such a “linguistic minefield” as something that comes into being only when it potentially inconveniences **you** in your language use. [QUOTE=The Mighty Boosh] Applying racial connotations to language which was hitherto free of it (as in “The jig is up”) […] It’s stupid, in every conceivable way. [/QUOTE] Sure, I don’t disagree that it’s intrinsically stupid in the sense of etymologically wrong to interpret words as racial slurs because they **sound** like racial slurs. If it were up to me, I would choose that no such incorrect interpretations should exist. My whole point here, though, is that it’s **not** up to me, or to any other individual language user. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/212 "2017-01-23T02:11:55Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > To be fair, that approach didn’t seem to work for Democrats in the Primary. That’s one of the main reasons I didn’t vote for him. Well, thanks for giving us President Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/213 "2017-01-23T02:12:59Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > The greatest part of today was watching Obama (and his family) leaving. The cloud has finally lifted. Nm ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/214 "2017-01-23T02:14:20Z")
Ehh, he’ll have his own problems if the white supremacists amongst Trump’s supporters/staff get their way. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mighty\_Boosh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_mighty_boosh/32/1755_2.png) [@The\_Mighty\_Boosh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mighty_Boosh)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/215 "2017-01-23T02:14:37Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Sorry, but I’m not. The minefield is there as soon as a significant number of people perceive offensiveness or ambiguity in the use of a term which was not originally regarded as offensive. By the time a typical language user like me gets around to even noticing any such ambiguity, the minefield already exists. > > You seem to be regarding such a “linguistic minefield” as something that comes into being only when it potentially inconveniences **you** in your language use. > Sure, I don’t disagree that it’s intrinsically stupid in the sense of etymologically wrong to interpret words as racial slurs because they **sound** like racial slurs. If it were up to me, I would choose that no such incorrect interpretations should exist. > > My whole point here, though, is that it’s **not** up to me, or to any other individual language user. Sure, I see that language evolves, meanings are fluid and at some level we need to change accordingly. However, there is only confusion (and offence, and conflict) ahead when people try to police others on the basis of things that may or may not be offensive. Better, in my opinion, to maintain that non-racist terms are, in actual fact, non-racist. Correct the people who think they are, not the people who know they aren’t. And the assholes who delight in clouding the difference and causing offence whilst maintaining deniability? Their ultimate aim is to get liberals to police language and scold those who ‘misuse’ it even when the language itself is innocuous, because that makes them look stupid at best and authoritarian at worst. Changing language goalposts, making up new definitions, insisting that what is false is true, seeing racism where none exists - this is the liberal version of ‘alternative facts.’ It doesn’t affect me, by the way - I don’t live in America and generally, outside the odd Uni department, issues like this are simply an irrelevance where I live. It might be worth pointing out, though, that liberalism of this sort is regarded with the same head-shaking incomprehension as the right’s strange commitment to guns in schools and suchlike. It’s insane. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/216 "2017-01-23T02:23:56Z")
> [@The\_Mighty\_Boosh](#): > > Changing language goalposts, making up new definitions, insisting that what is false is true, seeing racism where none exists - this is the liberal version of ‘alternative facts.’ That seems rather hyperbolic. Actually asserting that a false racially-based etymology is historically valid—e.g., that an idiom like “the jig is up” actually is historically derived from a context involving lynching of blacks—would be a liberal version of “alternative facts”. Because it isn’t true. But simply pointing out that many people find certain terms offensive because of such false racially-based etymologies is not untrue in any way. Any more than it’s untrue to point out that many people use the objective-case pronoun “whom” in subjective-case contexts where “who” would be grammatically correct, because they think it sounds more refined and hence more correct to use “whom”. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/217 "2017-01-23T04:14:50Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > That’s quite a stretch there to get to “Trump’s lying!”. > > Obama spent the last eight years lying through his teeth. Did you show as much fire in calling him or on his obvious lies out? Are seriously drawing similarities between Trump’s clear and obvious lying at every opportunity to what you claim as lies on Obama’s part? Or are you really that blinded by political orientation? ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/218 "2017-01-23T16:05:31Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Sorry, but I’m not. The minefield is there as soon as a significant number of people perceive offensiveness or ambiguity in the use of a term which was not originally regarded as offensive. By the time a typical language user like me gets around to even noticing any such ambiguity, the minefield already exists. > > You seem to be regarding such a “linguistic minefield” as something that comes into being only when it potentially inconveniences **you** in your language use. > Sure, I don’t disagree that it’s intrinsically stupid in the sense of etymologically wrong to interpret words as racial slurs because they **sound** like racial slurs. If it were up to me, I would choose that no such incorrect interpretations should exist. > > My whole point here, though, is that it’s **not** up to me, or to any other individual language user. In other words be afraid of the ignorant. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/219 "2017-01-23T16:09:45Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > In other words be afraid of the ignorant. We don’t call it “ignorance” anymore. It’s now “alternative knowledge”. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639/220 "2017-01-23T16:18:35Z")
> [@Thing\_Fish](#): > > Well, thanks for giving us President Trump. Bullshit. This imaginary world were he could have gathered together the Democratic Party and run roughshod over Trump and/or the Republican Party never could have happened. Do you really think they didn’t think about how to handle Bernie, that they didn’t have a big “He’s A Socialist” campaign ready to go? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-outstanding-inaugural-speech/777639.md?page=12)