A few days ago the show did a great riff on the use of the phrase "embolden the enemy"--something that we're told we do if we, for example, vote for Democrats, question the current running of the war, etc. The montage of clips showed that politicians on every side (even the guest that night, Democrat Joe Biden) had thrown the word around. It was a great mini-lesson in semantics. (I would link you directly to a YouTube page for the video, but Comedy Central's parent company, Viacom, has ordered YouTube to remove Viacom video from the site.)
Here, though, is the way "reporter" John Oliver summed up the way language has gotten tangled:
Well, this is an odd, unconventional war. This isn't like World War II where there were winners and losers. It' s a new kind of war where enemies can either be emboldened or beweakened. So we have to enscare them to the point where they rebecave themselves. We must disimagine the very figment of misunsuccessiveness. That is what we have to bedo.
1 comment:
It is funny that the Iraq War is brought up here; I’m mentoring for a very politically based FYS and they discuss the war probably every class period. Hopefully no one comes to me with a paper quite so tangled, though it would make my task easier. Not only are the words of the politicians confusing and mixed up, but so is the actual war. The FYS that I’m working with is about Vietnam War Film and Culture, and after taking that class last year, I would have to disagree with more than the grammar and word use in “reporter” John Oliver’s statement. The war in Iraq is not a new kind of war; wars have not been about “winners and losers” for over sixty years!
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