I need a TV-B-Gone for the gym

[jbailey]

Dear CNN,

The US presidential election race between senators McCain and Obama is not a "battleground". Battlegrounds are where people get killed. Using the same words for what passes as democracy in this country as for the military massacres in foreign countries is incredibly sad and disgusting.

That, and it's only vaguely less stupid than Toronto's "War on Fire".

Comments

Notsomuch

[qhartman.livejournal.com]

"Battleground" describes any area of conflict and is a perfectly legitimate word to use in the context of a political contest. Don't believe me? Look it up. I know you're a smart guy, but this post makes you sound like an ignorant, irrational, left-wing weenie. Don't contribute to the degradation of English by rejecting nuanced uses of words. Totally with you on the TV-B-Gone and the "War on Fire" though...

Re: Notsomuch

[jbailey.livejournal.com]

Yes, battleground does. Is an election an area of conflict? It seems reasonably a race, or a contest, or a competition. It doesn't seem reasonably an area of conflict.

Using the same words for an election as for, say, the war in Iraq both trivialises the human and emotional cost of that war and inflates the importance of a single election. By extension, I believe that it also makes it harder for people to recognise the longer term emotional impact of people serving in those wars. Because hey, it's no worse than an election, right?

Re: Notsomuch

[qhartman.livejournal.com]

An election is quite reasonably a conflict; again, look it up. It's sad that our society has created a context in which your only emotional association with these words is with actual martial acts, rather than the multitude of other ways that they can be used.

If you believe that using these words in a context other than their most horrific trivializes those events you're free to not use them that way. However, expecting the rest of the English speaking world to narrow their means of expression to coincide with your world views is arrogant and self centered. It highlights the egoism of American society.One of the worst "values" that we have. A value that arguably contributed to our entering into the very war you're so concerned about.

I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree on this, but I'll leave you with one other thought to consider. If in fact this word choice lowers a persons comprehension of the horrors of war, perhaps the blame for that should lie with that person rather than the people who are using the language in perfectly legitimate ways. Or perhaps it should lie with the broken educational system that encouraged such a base and inflexible system of thought.

Re: Notsomuch

[auzure-skies.livejournal.com]

You're responding awfully strongly to an idle annoyance. I think that the point jbailey was trying to make is that the American media over-sensasionalises *everything*, just to make ratings. Seriously, using the word "battleground" to apply to an election race is just hyperbole. Maybe CNN is trying to get people to vote by making it exciting? Maybe the American public is too jaded to pay attention to anything that doesn't seem like a disaster, I don't know. All I know is that, as a Canadian, we have a much higher voter turnout and less "pow", "slash", "kablaam" style reporting than you guys do here.

Re: Notsomuch

[baloo-ursidae.livejournal.com]

I believe the original poster has a valid point here. There's nuance beyond what is in the dictionary, and failure to comprehend that makes you look like you failed WR095 in college.