More Pet Peeves

The public dialog that all of us are being subjected to these days is really becoming a big pet peeve of mine. Specifically, I am referring to what I view as extreme language. Take entertainment reporting, for example. Have you noticed how many "icons" or "superstars" or "legends"there now are? (I like Betty White as much as any one, but she is not an entertainment icon any more I am.) But if you listen to the so-called entertainment talking heads these days, any more it is hard not to find a celebrity who does not fall under one of those three headings. As a result, those descriptive terms have been rendered meaningless. The same holds true for to the commentators who comment on the hard news and issues of the world. Can we all raise our hands and pledge to stop comparing things we do not like or approve of to Hitler's Nazi Germany? Is the health care plan the Obama administration successfully pushed through really as bad as that? Are the efforts by Michelle Obama to try and get kids in school to eat healthier food really akin to what life was like for those who lived under Stalin's Russia? Really? I think not.

When it comes to driving, one of the few things worse than people who do not signal they are about to turn are those who signal either while they are actually making that turn or are just a few seconds away from it. How about giving the drivers behind you an adequate heads-up? Besides being dangerous and even against the law, this is poor communication that could end up having terrible consequences. Unless you are involved in a high-speed chase where the last thing you want to do is give the people chasing you a clue as to where are you going, then there is no excuse for not being considerate of the publics with whom you are sharing the road.

Finally, I do not like it when politicians are asked a question to which they do not know the answer, yet they pretend to by spouting off irrelevant babel in an effort to disguise their ignorance. Not everyone knows something about everything. It is ok - at least to me - to say, "I don't know." This holds true even if it pertains to a question to which you should know the answer. Pretending to know something you don't is dishonest and misleading and, in the world of public relations, unethical. Sadly, examples of this kind of offense are endless. Suffice to say, if a person finds it difficult being honest about what they don't know, then can they really be trusted with being honest about they do know?.