There’s been lots of talk of a potential Trump political come-back. That will not happen as his name, non-influential halfwit deplorables aside, is now mud. Here’s the give-away.
As a life-long student of speech fads and fashion-following, which by definition are always temporary, a year back I wrote on this Blog about Trump’s sole legacy.
That was the wide-spread adoption by American commentators, regardless of the topic, to use a speech idiom Trump introduced during the candidates’ debates in 2016, and continued to use thereafter, namely to intersperse their comments with the utterly superfluous “And by the way”.
Following the election I note it has now abruptly disappeared. Instead it’s been eclipsed by another unnecessary American speech idiom which first made its appearance a year or so back, but is now totally out of hand. That is “going forward”.
The other night on CNBC I heard an interview subject say it seven times inside two minutes.
Watch any American being interviewed and listen to it trotted out regularly. On CNBC no-one’s capable of speaking for more than 30 seconds without using it, necessary in their case to pad out the nonsense they’re usually talking about the share-market. e.g. “XYZ coy anticipated 2021 sales going forward to be…”
Still, its redeeming aspect is it marks the end of Trumpian influence.
As said at the beginning, my observation of these speech absurdities is life-long. In fact that’s not quite true.
I first observed the phenomenon with the Labour Party half a century ago when no Labour politician could say anything without including the word “fundamental”. That was always a give-away of talking nonsense, it’s inclusion serving the function of implying an innate truth in their remarks which needed no explanation.
In the mid-1970s it began to wane and was replaced by “at this point in time” which lasted about a decade, Winston Peters excepted as he alone continued trotting it out ever after.
Does any of this matter, apart from its woeful copy-cattism? The answer is it does as superfluous speech idioms are a clear indication of waffle padding in which the speaker has nothing sensible to say.
11 Comments
And SB you will note our own dear Cindy used/ uses it often. It us infact the ultimate insult and reflects many of the qualities you so despise in Trump. Naming a few – totalitarianism, megalomania and self importance. Why??
Because it implies that everything preceding this has been going backwards. The speaker is implying “I’m the one, only I know how to go forward.”
Meanwhile we are going backwards. A classic example of this is how the lefts attack on residential landlords has backfired to the extent a shipping container in Wellington looks good as a home at $390/wk.
Cindy and her commy mates just don’t understand market interference. OR they do and the mess they created is used to justify paying for more state housing to house the ever growing number of useless. Socialism at work at it’s best.
Sir Bob; the last sentence of your last paragraph describes perfectly the current rabble we have pretending they know how to govern this country whilst inflicting us with lies & deception. “Pivot” and “The Team of 5 Million” are just 2 examples of superfluous mumbo-jumbo emanating from government ministers and a PM that are so far out to lunch it would be hilarious were it not so seriously concerning.
BTW – Happy New Year and I’m looking most forward to your next instalment regarding the “Horrible Green Party Little Turd” that I believe you said you’d serve up in early 2021….!
Wholeheartedly agree. As soon as someone says “going forward” I cringe and my head hurts! You can add these as well…
Down the line…
Up the line…
Can I just say…
Let me be clear…
To be clear…
I absolutely believe…
Let’s do this…
Let’s keep doing this…
Let’s keep moving…
I will say this…
I essentially agree
Many of the terms above are known as “performatives” in linguistic circles and are a common device in persuasive speech. My pet peeve is when “concerning” is used in place of “worrying” or “alarming”.
My real peeve is the fabulous “We all know …. !” So often used by the minorities pushing their pet cause. i.e. The Climate Change lunies “We all know (followed by some totally unproven phrase most of us know is rubbish)….”.
Used, incorrectly, daily. It is used to imply a statement of fact! When it actually is a statement of opinion.
In terms of, going forward, at the end of the day, fundamentally, basically, to be honest with you………. I think Kiwis are even worse than the Americans. Every tosser who has nothing to say or is about to spout forth a pack of lies blathers on in this vein ad nauseum 😟.
Peter Sellers nailed this in 1958:
Still hilarious.
Until reading this article I had actually forgotten that Winston Peters existed. Like with rock stars, once you’re gone you’re gone!
Actually, it’s Mudd (Dr. Samuel), he too was badly treated for doing the right thing.