For those of you who like to get into flame wars on the forums....

[poop]

My grandparents all recently passed away (3 within a year). I am horrified by Hipnotic_Tranz' use of the word 'dead'. Words like that shouldn't be thrown around.

More proper terms such as 'gone to a better place', or 'passed on' should be used. HT's insensitivity is utterly appaling.

Some people are simply too easily offended. Show you are do indeed have character by stating your distaste intelligibly, instead of trying to start a fight.

[Hipnotic_Tranz]

Poop - I've a very sensitive person when around sensitive people, but I don't like hiding my feelings behind words all the time. There is no point, stop kidding yourself and batting around the object and just say what you mean!

You can take it to an extreme like you have with the "dead baby jokes" which even though its' sick, my thoughts still remain the same. My mom had a child (emily) which while in the womb, the ambilical cord wraped around her neck and she died. Now, if I'm around my mom and we were talking about her, I wouldn't be as blunt and just go throwin' the word around saying shes dead. Thats just common courtesy there.

But in a general sence or if I'm just talking to my friends about my Great Grandma, I would say she died. Yeah, sure she passed on, went to a better place, it was her time, blah, blah BS. I like to keep things simple--she died. Straight and to the point. I know they have to real feelings for her because they've never met her. I have feelings for her, yes, but I don't make myself feel "better" by phrasing it in a less "harsh" word.

You should really download George Carlins - Euphemisms ~9meg. He talks just as if it were I.

[edit]


<i>"I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceil reality.
I don't like euphemisms, or euphemismistic language and American english is
loaded with euphemisms. Cause americans have a lot of trouble dealing with
reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth. So they invent the kind of soft
language to protect themselves from it and it gets worse, with ever generation!
For some reason it just keeps getting worse.

I'll give you an example of that. Theres a condition in combat, most of you know
about its when a fightings persons nervous system has been stressted to it's
aboslute peak and maximum, can't take any more input. The nervous system has
either (poping sound) snapped or is about to snap. In the first world war that
condition was called "Shell Shock" Simple, honest, direct langauge, Two sylabols.
Shell Shock. Almsot sounds like the guns themselves. That was 70 years ago!

Then a second war came along and the very same combat condition was called
"battle fatigue." Four sylibols now. Takes a little longer to say, doesn't seem to
hurt as much. Fatigue is a nicer word tha shock. Shell Shock... Battle Fatigue...

Then we had the war in Korea in 1950 and the very same combat condition was
called "operational exaustion" Hey, we're up to eight sylibols now and the
humanity now has been completely squeezed out of the phrase, it's totally steril
now. "Operation Exuastion" Sounds like something that might happen to your car!

Then of course came the war in Vietnam which has only been over for about 16 or
17 years and thanks to the lies and deciets surrounding that war I guess it's no
surprise that the very same condition, was called "Post-Tramatic Stress Disorder"
Still eight sylibols but we've added a hyphen! And the pain is completely burried
under jargon. "post-tramatic stress disorder" I'll betcha if we'd have still been
calling it "Shell Shock" some of those vietnam veterens might have gotten the
attention they needed at the time.

(clapping)"</i>

Whew, yes I typed all that and sorry if my spelling is off. Thats not all of it, but the main part.