Misused Terms You're Sick of Seeing

IOwnTheSpire

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I think we've all had this reaction at some point in time. I've got a few that particularly annoy me:

[b]Karma.[/b] I see this all the time on the Internet. People are taking a very intricate concept and simplifying it down to mean 'just desserts' and it needs to stop.

[b]Misogyny.[/b] Men make ill-thought remarks about women all the time. It's one thing to call them sexist, but to label them misogynists (which means hatred of women in general) is too far.

[b]Friend zone.[/b] If a guy is nice to a girl and expects sex in return (or shows any sense of entitlement) they are NOT in the friend zone, and anyone (including the guy who says it) who uses it in that way are mistaken. The friend zone is when a guy OR a girl has romantic feelings for a friend but the friend is either unaware or doesn't feel the same way. That's it.

Anyone else got a misused term that drives them nuts?
 

Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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People using "literally" as a synonym for "really" or "a lot". It's maddening, and English isn't even my first language.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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The use of the word "racist" to mean any prejudice. It drives me up the goddamn wall.
 

San Martin

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People saying 'SJW' and 'feminazi'. There is no situation in which you should say those words. Stop.
 

KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime

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Jan 12, 2010
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LeathermanKick25 said:
Not so much misused, but anyone who uses the term cis-gendered. You come across as nothing more than a complete wanker. Also people throwing around offended at anything online. As Stephen Fry said, so the fuck what if you are?
For the cis-gendered part. You know what? I'm transgender, want me to call you normal? Fine then you can call me normal too. I'm not a wanker for using the term to describe people who aren't trans, and I'm not going to other my self for your privileged self importance. Cis-gender means you have a standard gender identity, but to call you normal means I'm actively abnormal, if you want me to force that on myself, you can go look someplace else.

For the second part? Sure let other people be offended at things you don't find offensive. But it's being anti-social to not at least try to understand why.
 

KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime

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LeathermanKick25 said:
KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime said:
LeathermanKick25 said:
Not so much misused, but anyone who uses the term cis-gendered. You come across as nothing more than a complete wanker. Also people throwing around offended at anything online. As Stephen Fry said, so the fuck what if you are?
For the cis-gendered part. You know what? I'm transgender, want me to call you normal? Fine then you can call me normal too. I'm not a wanker for using the term to describe people who aren't trans, and I'm not going to other my self for your privileged self importance. Cis-gender means you have a standard gender identity, but to call you normal means I'm actively abnormal, if you want me to force that on myself, you can go look someplace else.

For the second part? Sure let other people be offended at things you don't find offensive. But it's being anti-social to not at least try to understand why.
Call me straight, hell of a lot easier to type out too. You're trans? I'll call you trans. Look at that, problem solved!
I know a transman who likes women and considers himself straight, I know a lesbian woman who is cisgender... What I mean by that is that straight refers to sexuality, gender identity has nothing to do with sexuality. Cisgender, or transgender are easy terms to make abundantly clear. You mix sexuality and gender identity terms and all you get is confusion.
 

KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime

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Jan 12, 2010
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LeathermanKick25 said:
I really don't care about this whole gender identity nonsense that everyone feels the need to label themselves with these days. Sexuality is more than simple enough to get the point across on this forum. I'm straight, people understand what that means. You're Trans, it's not rocket surgery to get the gist of what you are. People want to know more? They're free to do whatever the please. I don't need to complicate it all, and I don't have the undying need to label myself with more ridiculous terms.
Except that I'm pan, and trans, and straight can apply to trans people who like the gender opposite their identity. So straight is uninformative in this case. Cisgender is at the least informative and clear.
 

KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime

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I hate to double post but this brought up a couple for me:

Cisgender: When used as an insult, also when dismissed as a term entirely.

Straight: When used as a term to identify something other than weather or not something is physically straight, like a tube, or to define something other than sexuality.
 

BreakfastMan

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Jul 22, 2010
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Well, the obvious answer here is the term "Ethics". Specifically of the "in games journalism" variety. XD
 
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MajorTomServo said:
Saying "I could care less."

That means you do care.

At least a little.
Oh god so much this. I know it really shouldn't matter, its such a little thing, but the people who use it don't seem to realise they've just turned their sentence into the exact opposite of what they mean. Its not a quirk of language like the different spellings in American English and proper English, its just plain wrong. How did it start, who did it, and how do we stop them?
 

MeatMachine

Dr. Stan Gray
May 31, 2011
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"[country/continent]-American"

In the United States, no one is truly American; everyone is African-American, or Italian-American, or simply Jewish. We all like to think that because our great, great, great grandparents immigrated to New York from Dublin back in the early 20th century, that makes us honorarily Irish. Even the original Americans are differentiated as Cherokee or Navajo if they live traditionally, but if assimilated into the federation, lose their title to become the much more generic "Native American".

The strangest thing is, from what I've noticed, many Americans tend to think that all -actual- Germans or Russians or whatever DO speak fluent American English, but prefer not to out of a sense of smug superiority; almost as if foreigners are not actual foreigners, but more akin to X-Americans who have simply been isolated from the homeland for too long that they've began to develop strange habits.
 

Lil devils x_v1legacy

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May 17, 2011
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SJW, white knight, bro, dude, epeen, anime, and yea 99% of what people speaking chan have to say among others... XD
 

Techno Squidgy

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LeathermanKick25 said:
Not so much misused, but anyone who uses the term cis-gendered. You come across as nothing more than a complete wanker.
But it's an accurate technical term. Much like Cis- and Trans- isomers in chemistry. Though I think that's an outdated terminology.
 

Flashmanic

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Jun 11, 2014
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"Hypocrite"
The most overused and wrongly used word on the internet. It's became a substitute for 'I disagree with this!', and it allows people to forget that, in fact, people can change their opinion over time. I still see people call Jim Sterling a hypocrite because it said some sexist jokes once a few years ago. -.-

Also, nonsense terms like 'toxic masculinity', or to be more precise, people wo utter that phrase alone as if it makes an argument or a point.
 

13e thr33

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KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime said:
This may come across as ignorant, sorry, but why not just identify as the gender you wish to be rather then refer to yourself with a transitionary phrase?

OT: Nothing really, people have flavors of speech.
 

loa

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___phobic
Newsflash, "phobia" means "fear of" which is not in fact equal to "hatred for" and no, the term sounding super catchy doesn't change that. I am an arachnophobe, I freeze up if I see a big spider crawling out of my bedsheets. That doesn't mean I hate spiders, I actually find them interesting to look at... from afar.

Entitled
This has become this weird catch-all response to any form of criticism. Can we just stop doing that now? Can we?