How to Weaponize an Existential Threat. The title of a piece in the Wall St Journal
Op-Ed page. The author, Joseph Epstein
is out to trash a lot of vague words, popular with newsies and pols, which have
been creeping into English. He mentions
focus, issue (bland word for bug or problem), charisma, prioritize, weaponize,
incentivize. Word for Window spell check
chokes up on weaponize and incentivize
The author finishes
off with “existential threat”. A
threat is a threat, when you are on the receiving end of a threat you have to
either knuckle under, or get ready to fight.
The existential part is a fancy way of making the threat sound more
dangerous. Me, I will stick with “deadly
threat”.
Mr. Epstein doesn’t
mention “holistic”, a general purpose sounds good but means nothing word. When I hear or read “holistic” I know I am
wasting my time with this person or article.
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