So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Trenchfriend]

Jesus, I hate myself!
I just can't explain to myself, why I had this old-fashion butter-goodies not on my radar for some years. But I can definitely remember, that I always liked them very much. But now, I'm back on it and will surely not change for a long time. It's still so good for your adult teeth!!

"Coffee rings with coarse sugar"!!

https://www.google.de/search?biw=1366&bih=640&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=6B1CXM-1DIuRrgSZsKP4Dw&q=kaffee+kränzel+gebäck&oq=kaffee+kränzel+gebäck&gs_l=img.3...53539.54658..54867...0.0..0.78.433.7......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i24.50ThyC_UWmQ

Say it:

H-A-G-E-L-Z-U-C-K-E-R!!

Life's good...

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Jesus, I hate myself!
I just can't explain to myself, why I had this old-fashion butter-goodies not on my radar for some years. But I can definitely remember, that I always liked them very much. But now, I'm back on it and will surely not change for a long time. It's still so good for your adult teeth!!

"Coffee rings with coarse sugar"!!

https://www.google.de/search?biw=1366&bih=640&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=6B1CXM-1DIuRrgSZsKP4Dw&q=kaffee+kränzel+gebäck&oq=kaffee+kränzel+gebäck&gs_l=img.3...53539.54658..54867...0.0..0.78.433.7......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i24.50ThyC_UWmQ

Say it:

H-A-G-E-L-Z-U-C-K-E-R!!

Life's good...

 

[Fading Fast]

Jesus, I hate myself!
I just can't explain to myself, why I had this old-fashion butter-goodies not on my radar for some years. But I can definitely remember, that I always liked them very much. But now, I'm back on it and will surely not change for a long time. It's still so good for your adult teeth!!

"Coffee rings with coarse sugar"!!

https://www.google.de/search?biw=1366&bih=640&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=6B1CXM-1DIuRrgSZsKP4Dw&q=kaffee+kränzel+gebäck&oq=kaffee+kränzel+gebäck&gs_l=img.3...53539.54658..54867...0.0..0.78.433.7......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i24.50ThyC_UWmQ

Say it:

H-A-G-E-L-Z-U-C-K-E-R!!

Life's good...

One thing you'll never have to explain to me is eating cookies. I will now look for those in the "international" section of the supermarket.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm really sick of the phrase "bad actor," lately overused by cable-tv twits, tiresome bloggers, tweeters, and conspiracy hacks to refer to any individual who moves in opposition to their own particular agenda. It's the sort of beaten-into-the-mud cliche that mama's-basement internet jockeys quack out to make it sound like they're informed insiders with a background in military intelligence. But to me the only image "bad actor" brings to mind is Sonny Tufts.

 

[GHT]

One thing you'll never have to explain to me is eating cookies. I will now look for those in the "international" section of the supermarket.

I like my coffee black, no sugar. I like my cookies French style, as in biscuits. Bi, meaning two. Cuit, meaning to cook, biscuit, Twice cooked. But then again, cookies are so called because of all that cooking. But I still prefer biscuits to cookies, because it's much harder to get a biscuit into your computer than it is a cookie.

 

[3fingers]

I'm really sick of the phrase "bad actor," lately overused by cable-tv twits, tiresome bloggers, tweeters, and conspiracy hacks to refer to any individual who moves in opposition to their own particular agenda.

I hadn't heard the term since childhood until fairly recently, when as you say, it has become a catchall for "anybody I don't like".
My grandfather used it to describe people who were serious criminals or just really, truly rotten people. You had to be really blatantly nasty to earn the "bad actor" label from him.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The internet makes it all too easy for those with an agenda to shape, not just the conversation but the language used in that conversation to suit their purpose. When I hear, for example, the phrase "Overton window" being tossed around I know precisely what corner of the internet said tosser likes to frequent.

 

[3fingers]

I hate buzzwords in general and the Overton window is a popular one that a lot of the users of the term cannot define or explain.There are plenty of tossers to go around across the spectrum. Only the terminology changes. I read as as many or more online sources that I disagree with than those that reinforce my thoughts, although my beliefs generally seem to defy placement in a neat box. I don't see the value of living in an echo chamber. Nobody learns anything in there.
And with that, I will not push any farther toward prohibited discussion.

 

[tonyb]

I'm really sick of the phrase "bad actor," lately overused by cable-tv twits, tiresome bloggers, tweeters, and conspiracy hacks to refer to any individual who moves in opposition to their own particular agenda. It's the sort of beaten-into-the-mud cliche that mama's-basement internet jockeys quack out to make it sound like they're informed insiders with a background in military intelligence. But to me the only image "bad actor" brings to mind is Sonny Tufts.

I took that phrase to mean “one whose actions are for ill” in a particular context. By that definition, just about everyone has been a bad actor at one point or another. Or several. If it has come to mean something other than that (as the above accounts suggest), that’s regrettable.

A cliche gaining currency in my world is “lived experience.” I’m left to wonder what other kind of experience there is. I suppose a case could be made for “vicarious experience,” even if that phrase does border on the oxymoronic.

On hearing “lived experience” I usually suspect the speaker of using it as a sort of rhetorical trump card, an appeal to a supposed authority, a suggestion that his or her “lived experience” lends their arguments more strength because, you know, they’ve “lived” it, and you haven’t. I find it akin to those who feel entitled to their “own truth,” based as it is on their “lived experience” that imparts a sort of street cred or something. Pffft.

 

[LizzieMaine]

This parrot-like repetition of specific words, slogans and weighted catch phrases from media talking heads isn't accidental. It's part of a thought-out communications strategy designed to "shape the discourse," to use another such phrase. "Communications" as such is another such word, a word which in the current context means "manipulation."

In my reporter days we used to dismiss "communications directors" as flacks and press agents, but they're much more sophisticated than that now. They give out the line they want promulgated, and they do it in a way that it integrates into the target's speech and thoughts without their understanding what's happened -- spend an hour reading Twitter, Facebook, or any comment section and you'll see exactly how this happens. Millions of speakers but only one voice. As Brother McLuhan pointed out so long ago, the medium very much becomes the message.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
Lakoff and Lakoff have written on this at length.

We think metaphorically; we liken the unknown to the known. It’s how our feeble little brains attempt to make sense of our world.

Every perspective is built on assumptions, most of which don’t quite stand up to careful scrutiny. Therein lies my difficulty with the true believers of all stripes. Absolutists, utopians, seem pathologically incapable of taking a detached view of their own positions. In most cases of my familiarity that’s because the true believer has so much of his identity invested in his views that challenging them threatens his very sense of his own self-worth.

 

[GHT]

In my reporter days we used to dismiss "communications directors" as flacks and press agents, but they're much more sophisticated than that now. They give out the line they want promulgated, and they do it in a way that it integrates into the target's speech and thoughts without their understanding what's happened -- spend an hour reading Twitter, Facebook, or any comment section and you'll see exactly how this happens. Millions of speakers but only one voice. As Brother McLuhan pointed out so long ago, the medium very much becomes the message.

What Lizzie has described there has many parallels with Catholicism.

Every perspective is built on assumptions, most of which don’t quite stand up to careful scrutiny. Therein lies my difficulty with the true believers of all stripes. Absolutists, utopians, seem pathologically incapable of taking a detached view of their own positions. In most cases of my familiarity that’s because the true believer has so much of his identity invested in his views that challenging them threatens his very sense of his own self-worth.

Whether it's politics, religion or the flat earth society, Tony's observation reminds me of Stuart Chase's comment:
For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible.

 

[tonyb]

This parrot-like repetition of specific words, slogans and weighted catch phrases from media talking heads isn't accidental. It's part of a thought-out communications strategy designed to "shape the discourse," to use another such phrase. "Communications" as such is another such word, a word which in the current context means "manipulation."

In my reporter days we used to dismiss "communications directors" as flacks and press agents, but they're much more sophisticated than that now. They give out the line they want promulgated, and they do it in a way that it integrates into the target's speech and thoughts without their understanding what's happened -- spend an hour reading Twitter, Facebook, or any comment section and you'll see exactly how this happens. Millions of speakers but only one voice. As Brother McLuhan pointed out so long ago, the medium very much becomes the message.

One sign that I was venturing into territory the flack would rather I didn't was when said flack suggested I was "asking the wrong question."

"Humor me," was my typical response.

Getting past the "spokesperson" was a constant challenge. I wished to speak with the elected official, to quote him or her directly. Being dismissed by the electeds and/or the spokespersons wasn't the way to get their preferred narrative into print. If they didn't wish to be forthcoming, their adversaries were certain to be. I got good copy either way.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm noticing an annoying trend of late of "inspirational slogans" appearing in random, incongruous places. This morning at an ATM, the illuminated panel above the screen displayed the following over a dreamscape background of dollar signs, pound signs, yen signs and euro signs: "ATM Create Your Values."

My values were created a very long time ago, and I didn't have to pay a $2.75 service fee for them.

Then the other day in the KFC drive-thru line, the following message appeared on the window alongside the Colonel's inscrutable visage as I waited for my two piece breast and wing original recipe with a biscuit: "Be Your Best Self And Make A Difference!"

The poor, sad-eyed elderly woman who passed my order thru the window did not appear to be her best self and I don't believe she thought she was making a difference.

Enough with the palaver, Boys. I know what you're up to.

 

[GHT]

Then the other day in the KFC drive-thru line, the following message appeared on the window alongside the Colonel's inscrutable visage as I waited for my two piece breast and wing original recipe with a biscuit: "Be Your Best Self And Make A Difference!"

I would be happy if they just kept their messages to their outlets.

But if you really want to get an advertising message across, get some fashion designer to put their name onto your corporate uniform and then charge an astronomical price. Like £185 for this DHL 'T' shirt.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3517575/Would-pay-185-Vetements-DHL-t-shirt.html

 

[Trenchfriend]

I'm noticing an annoying trend of late of "inspirational slogans" appearing in random, incongruous places. This morning at an ATM, the illuminated panel above the screen displayed the following over a dreamscape background of dollar signs, pound signs, yen signs and euro signs: "ATM Create Your Values."

My values were created a very long time ago, and I didn't have to pay a $2.75 service fee for them.

Then the other day in the KFC drive-thru line, the following message appeared on the window alongside the Colonel's inscrutable visage as I waited for my two piece breast and wing original recipe with a biscuit: "Be Your Best Self And Make A Difference!"

The poor, sad-eyed elderly woman who passed my order thru the window did not appear to be her best self and I don't believe she thought she was making a difference.

Enough with the palaver, Boys. I know what you're up to.

Paroles always get louder, when a system goes down...

 

[Fading Fast]

I've read - not convinced one way or the other yet - that two reasons companies, charities and, even, some governments are adopting inspirational "sloganning" is that it tests very well with the Millennials who are looking for "meaning" in things and experiences and, two, (more generally and not unrelated) the decline of religion in people's lives has left them looking for inspiration/beliefs/faith elsewhere.

 

[GHT]

I've read - not convinced one way or the other yet - that two reasons companies, charities and, even, some governments are adopting inspirational "sloganning" is that it test very well with the Millennials who are looking for "meaning" in things and experiences and, two, (more generally and not unrelated) the decline of religion in people's lives has left them looking for inspiration/beliefs/faith elsewhere.

Now that is a very good point.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And the converse of that being the essential meaninglessness of the work most people end up doing these days. If you can convince a 75 year old woman who needs money that there's meaning in frying chicken, maybe she won't feel suicidal every morning when she gets out of bed.

 

[Fading Fast]

Just noting for emphasis, I was "reporting" not supporting or dismissing what I had read. I only noticed this just now, but the first quote in my signature is apropos to this discussion.