Frank Bruni’s weekly newsletter in the NY Times often ends with a short section called “Retire These Words,” wherein he highlights words that have served their time and need axing from the lexicon. According to Frank Bruni.
As our year draws to an end, I thought I’d share my own list of words, phrases, and ideas that have run their course. If I never had to hear these expressions again, I wouldn’t miss them. Some seem to have lost all agreed-upon meaning, thus are no longer contributing to fruitful discussion. Others have just become cliché, the lazy writer’s default language. In either case, these words no longer “spark joy” – hat tip Marie Kondo – so I say we just throw them out!
First, and foremost: WOKE. Can we please lose this word and all its iterations? (Wokeness, wokeism, etc.) It once meant something good – enlightened, aware, justice-seeking – before it came to mean something bad – self-righteous, humorless, censorious – and now various people use it both ways, which is confusing. But worse than confusing, it’s just everywhere, all the time, and I’m sick of it. When “woke” was a revelation, an education, an aspiration, it had much to offer. Then woke came to power, went mainstream, and became a bully. I believe extreme woke got Donald Trump reelected, and now that he has been, woke is on the wane. But people still talk about it – and rail against it – as if it were dominant. It’s not. Woke is on the way out, big time. I suspect we might come to miss it. But I won’t miss the word.
VIBES. Okay, this might be the word of the year – paired often, but not always, with the word SHIFT. How many gleeful articles did I read about the Vibe Shift that happened when Kamala Harris took the place of Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee for president? How often was I told the election was all about vibes? That Kamala had the good ones – joyful, “bratty” – while Trump’s were dark and fearsome? But the thing about vibes? They’re nebulous, hard to pin down… and every shift has a counter shift. I read an article in The Free Press just yesterday entitled ‘The Vibe Shift Goes Global,’ claiming that “the Vibe Shift is a return to—a championing of—Reality, a rejection of the bureaucratic, the cowardly, the guilt-driven; a return to greatness, courage, and joyous ambition.” This was all in reference to the election of Donald Trump and its effect on the world. Vibes are a hard thing to hang your hat on because they’re so dang shifty and everybody brings their own vibes to the vibe. One person’s Hitler vibes are another person’s happy vibes.
Mainly, I’m just tired of reading and writing about vibes. The next time I need to describe a “vibe shift” I think I’ll use that old-timey term “mood swing,” instead. Just to shake things up.
MISINFORMATION. Much like its cousin, Disinformation, Misinformation is a slippery term that’s lost a lot of its oomph through overuse and abuse. If you accuse someone of spreading misinformation, they will just accuse YOU of the same thing, while probably adding an admonition to “do your research.” And here’s the problem: They’re often proved right. Much of what gets labeled “misinformation” by our cultural gatekeepers later turns out to be… just plain information. (Did you hear that Covid probably WAS the product of a lab leak after all?)
Obviously, we’ve lost a great deal of trust in our American institutions – especially the media – and I believe a little institutional humility would go a long way toward solving that problem. Instead of labeling any departure from the mainstream narrative “misinformation” – and maligning the “misinformer” – why not call it “speculation” or “skepticism” or even an “alternative take” until we know for sure? There are times when mainstream media – and its disciples – should just say, “We don’t know yet,” or “we’re not sure,” or “maybe, maybe not.” People would be a lot more forgiving when new info came to light, and trust might slowly be restored.
And speaking of MAINSTREAM MEDIA… What does that even mean anymore? Conservative media – which sprang up decades ago in a true vacuum of representation – is now just about as pervasive and powerful as what we call “mainstream media.” And the “alternative media” has quite a large following, as well. So, I propose we now ditch the word “mainstream.” From here on out, we should just call it the media.
FASCISM. Does anybody really understand this word? I don’t. If fascism meant what I always thought it meant, then Donald Trump – whom I’m repeatedly told is a fascist – would get much better press. In fact, he’d control the press – aka the “mainstream media” – which is mostly critical of his every move. I just spent over an hour reading up on fascism – again – and I’m now more confused than I was when I started. When a word is this confounding, it’s no longer helpful to our public discourse. I think it needs a time-out.
PROBLEMATIC. Honestly, this word isn’t objectively… problematic. I simply don’t like it. I find it colorless, sterile, trendy – and it always bears the stench of politics. There are so many perfectly good words we were using before we all pounced on “problematic” to describe every thorny, knotty, prickly, complicated, troublesome issue. Let’s start using them again! Problematic deserves a break.
CONSERVATIVE & LIBERAL. Obviously, these aren’t going anywhere. They’re too deeply ingrained in our tribal narrative. But I do wish we could have a national conversation about what they mean. As a MODERATE – a label one can still claim, I think – I was always drawn to conservatism because it sought to “conserve” our democratic norms and institutions, while I was drawn to liberalism because it sought to correct and improve those norms and institutions. Today, those who call themselves “conservatives” want to make radical changes – or even “blow it all up” – while those who call themselves “liberals” want to conserve the status quo. This is a gross oversimplification, but you get my drift. These words no longer add to our common understanding and are due for a tune-up.
But enough of all that.
It’s Sunday morning as I finish this column that I started on Friday afternoon. My vibe has shifted. Outside my window, the late autumn sun sparkles through Spanish moss. Soon, I will leave my warm home and enter my glowing church, where I’ll sing a favorite carol with my choir, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter.’ The Advent wreath will be lit – the candle of Joy for this third Sunday – then I’ll listen to the word that never fails to move me and only grows richer with time. The Word that always renews and never retires.
And everything I’ve written above will be so much blather.
Thank you for reading, anyway. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
