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I don't like the word passed - even when referring to my own parents I use "died". Passed is an unnecessary euphemism and seems very fake to me - people who have no reason to even be emotionally impacted by someone's death use "passed" and I really just roll my eyes. At least it used to just be older women, now I hear it all the time - and I would never assume or presume about the religious connotation coming into play for any individual.
I agree with you Renee. In fact I'm getting to the point of being jaded at hearing the term.
However, remember that as we all get older more and more of the people we know will die. The older you get the more your friends and family tend to drop like flies. Then one day you will hear the term for your last time...
I thought "homicide bomber" was silly. Guess the new term didn't catch on and they all went back to "suicide bomber". This happened several years ago.
Before we starting having constant and widespread war in the ME news reporters used to refer to "the conflict in the Middle East". Then they switched to "the violence in the Middle East". Now both terms are obsolete and it's "war" more often than anything else.
It's also not very clear. Timothy McVeigh was a homicide bomber. The Tsaernov brothers who set the bombs at the Boston Marathon were homicide bombers. Homicide bomber implies the bomber is still alive to bomb again. Suicide bomber is a clear indicator the bomber's never going to have a second chance to try it.
It's also not very clear. Timothy McVeigh was a homicide bomber. The Tsaernov brothers who set the bombs at the Boston Marathon were homicide bombers. Homicide bomber implies the bomber is still alive to bomb again. Suicide bomber is a clear indicator the bomber's never going to have a second chance to try it.
That's a very clear, well thought out explanation.
Yes, the correct terminology depends on whether the bomber intends to still be alive after the bomb goes off. If they do it in a manner that will obviously kill the bomber then the only correct term is "suicide bomber."
I've never heard homicide bomber ever used, either. Suicide bomber is more useful as a phrase, because any bomber is potentially a homicide (or at least manslaughter) bomber. Not all bombers intend to also blow themselves up as part of the spectacle of destruction, however.
John Oliver's 'Last Week Tonight' show often does a humorous mid-episode montage showing just how widespread the usage of certain catchphrases can be in the TV news media
The term 'homicide bombing' had just a brief time in the spotlight. It began when the Bush White House invented it in 2002. Here's Presidential spokesman discussing it during a press briefing: "But the reason I started to use that term is because it's a more accurate description. These are not suicide bombings. These are not people who just kill themselves. These are people who deliberately go to murder others, with no regard to the values of their own life. These are murderers. The President has said that in the Rose Garden. And I think that is just a more accurate description of what these people are doing. It's not suicide, it's murder." https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archi...0020412-1.html
No one else ever used it. Well, except for Fox News, who totally ran with it.
The idiocy of this idea is that the word 'suicide' somehow implies pity, and we can't have that. And if that means we have to ignore the suicidal aspect of the attack, so be it. Also, we have to use the word 'homicide' - which is idiotic precisely because bombings, as you note, are almost invariably attempts to kill. Imagine the phrase 'homicide sniper'. How idiotic is that? No less idiotic than 'homicide bomber'. No one ever called the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing a 'homicide bombing' though as Tallysmom notes above Timothy McVeigh was indeed trying to kill people. Nor was the 1996 Olympic bombing by Eric Robert Rudolph ever called a 'homicide bombing'. No one had to be told that those bombers were trying to kill people, because no one is dumb enough to think otherwise. Of course, the reason they weren't called 'homicide bombers' - and I dare you to find any Fox News use of the Oklahoma City Bombing that instead recalls it as the 'Oklahoma City Homicide Bombing', because they have never and will never refer to that historical attack as such - is that they were white non-Muslims. Also, the term 'suicide bombing' speaks to the fanaticism of the attacker, which does indeed give us more information about the nature of the bombing (as, obviously, not all bombers are suicidal).
Basically, the Bush administration (and its fawning lackeys) were worried that the phrase 'suicide bomber' might elicit some sympathy and wasn't condemnatory enough, so they found a Newspeak phrase to use in its place.
And, yes, a search of the "homicide bomber"+fox+news+2017+transcript shows sporadic use of the term continuing.
"But the reason I started to use that term is because it's a more accurate description. These are not suicide bombings. These are not people who just kill themselves. These are people who deliberately go to murder others, with no regard to the values of their own life. These are murderers. The President has said that in the Rose Garden. And I think that is just a more accurate description of what these people are doing. It's not suicide, it's murder."
The idiocy of this idea is that the word 'suicide' somehow implies pity, and we can't have that. And if that means we have to ignore the suicidal aspect of the attack, so be it. Also, we have to use the word 'homicide' - which is idiotic precisely because bombings, as you note, are almost invariably attempts to kill. Imagine the phrase 'homicide sniper'. How idiotic is that? No less idiotic than 'homicide bomber'...
Basically, the Bush administration (and its fawning lackeys) were worried that the phrase 'suicide bomber' might elicit some sympathy and wasn't condemnatory enough, so they found a Newspeak phrase to use in its place.
You've made a very good point and I totally agree with you that the term "homicide bomber" is ridiculous. The statement by the Bush spokesman is just as ridiculous. It's blather.
The whole concept of political correctness is ridiculous.
It brings to mind George Orwell's novel 1984 and Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, in that both novels IMO addressed the concept of controlling and manipulating peoples' thoughts by controlling their speech, by controlling communication (e.g. censoring books). If you have an inability to express concepts in speech it forces an inability to even think those thoughts.
We are being manipulated when political correctness is applied. It's an attempt to control our thoughts by the deliberate use of "code phrases" intended to influence our emotions and our opinions.
I noticed several years ago that EVERYONE, not just journalists, say passed or passed away instead of died. It's strange to me because I'm in my 50s and my whole life until just recent years people, at least people I came in contact with, used the word "died" - not passed or passed away.
Two words used often by news-heads annoy me. "Incredible" which literally means "not believable" but what they are saying is something is wonderful, beautiful, amazing, etc.,
The other is the constant use of "again" followed by a repeat of whatever they just said. Just tells me they got too much airtime assigned to their bit of the broadcast.
Two words used often by news-heads annoy me. "Incredible" which literally means "not believable" but what they are saying is something is wonderful, beautiful, amazing, etc.,
The other is the constant use of "again" followed by a repeat of whatever they just said. Just tells me they got too much airtime assigned to their bit of the broadcast.
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