George Carlin - Euphemisms
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters reach for it whenever a thread involves corporate or political euphemism, using it mostly as a reference.
What it is
A George Carlin stand-up bit on euphemisms, tracing how language gets softened, such as shell shock becoming PTSD, until it loses its emotional force.
Recommended by 4 HN commenters across 4 different months, 2014 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec gorwell · 2021-08 · on “Homelessness is about housing”
Did anyone else notice this euphemism treadmill update? "for people experiencing homelessness" "the number of people experiencing homelessness" "of those experiencing homelessness" This softer language with more syllables is not for the benefit of the homeless, it's for everyone else so they don't feel as bad about it. Which makes it less likely anything will be done. George Carlin made this point brilliantly: [this video]
Recommends DevX101 · 2014-12 · on “US Senate Report on CIA Detention and Interrogation Program”
"You can't be afraid of words that speak the truth. I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms or euphemistic language. And American english is loaded with euphemisms. Because Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent a kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it. And it gets worse with every generation. For some reason it just keeps getting worse." - George Carlin Here's an amusing and insightful video of Carlin dissecting the language behind Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [this video] The U.S. military seems particularly prone to this habit of using euphemi
Recommends ryandrake · 2022-05 · on “How to professionally say”
George Carlin had a great bit[1] about our continuous need to soften our language with euphemisms. That, combined with a kind of forced optimism: needing to hide all negativity inside robotic passive aggression, is what communication has become in a lot of corporations. I don't imagine anyone actually likes having to do it, but we all seem to adopt these speech patterns eventually. Every time your boss tells you, "Hey, can you tone it down next time? Fred told me he was very offended by your asking him to do his job!"-- you're being asked to participate in the game. 1: [this video]
Recommends bullfightonmars · 2024-08 · on “Euphemisms are best changed frequently (2016)”
George Carlin has a great bit on euphemism where he makes the case that euphemisms are used to soften the meaning of things that are painful to the point of being meaningless, e.g. shellshock -> ptsd [this video] The author of this article pointed our some similar examples: welfare -> cash assistance -> TANF.
Cites jimbobimbo · 2014-10 · on “The Horror of a 'Secure Golden Key'”
Good observation on "golden key" == "backdoor". That reminded me George Carlin's "Euphemisms": [this video] (May have strong language)
Cites itistoday2 · 2015-05 · on “How the DEA took a young man’s life savings without charging him with a crime”
I am concerned that by calling it "civil forfeiture" this article is using language to mask a very basic crime. What was described in this article is called stealing or theft. To call it anything else is to mask and downplay what was done to this man. It is to enable the very act that was committed. George Carlin observed this as a dangerous trend in our language: [this video] Call it "civil forfeiture" once if you have to (perhaps as a footnote). But to repeatedly use such "soft language" is to delay an end to such injustice.
Cites Nadya · 2015-11 · on “Replace suicide as a verb – Issue #3721 – Node.js/node”
Do people realize that euphemisms do not change the meaning of something? `voluntaryExit`? What do they think suicide actually is? Oh well, at least it provides relevant context to shoehorn Carlin in. [0] [1] It amazes me so many people are willing to receive their sticks from the stick people. [0] [this video] [1] [LINK]
Cites aq3cn · 2016-10 · on “The Art of Condolence”
He made fun of euphemism and the way people mourn over or feel hurt because of choice of words. [this video] This article asks us to avoid the d word (death, dead). This is bit too extreme for me. English is my third language and I have hurt people at multiple occasions because of poor choice of words. I wish it goes away, so that my life can be easier. It is not easy to live in society as an autistic person and I have no interest in learning manners of society when I believe I have more meaningful interests to pursue. If you are a social person, you will not like my opinion and it's fine. I am used to that. Check what Linus has to say about it in his TEDx talk. [LINK]