Since late 2015, Americans have seemed to gravitate towards words and phrases that I hadn't really seen before (or at least hadn't seen them utilized in the context they now have). Words are funny in the way that they develop in certain cultures. I fully believe in the 1st Amendment right to say whatever you feel, but I really wish we would think about some of the words and phrases we use. I've comprised a list below, with an explanation for my gripes, of words and phrases we should ditch before 2018:
Dox/Doxxing:
Doxxing is a phrase with a recent birth. I have only been able to find the term as far back as 2012, but it was apparently developed from an act popularized in the late 90s. Doxxing is the act of releasing personal documents ("docs") over the internet of a certain targeted individual. The personal documents released are normally addresses and locations intended to lead to the harassment of the individual being "doxxed". The most recent example of doxxing was in the form of a CNN contributor who, in a now deleted article, threatened to release the personal information of a Redditor (HanAssholeSolo). The offense of HanAssholeSolo was making a gif of President Trump pile-driving a person with the CNN logo superimposed over their face.
The reason I hate the term "doxxing" is because it's a cute way to say "blackmailing" or "cyberbullying". The term is an internet replacement for humiliating or potentially harming someone. I think the best example of how doxxing can go awry was given to us by South Park, and their fictional doxxing network TrollTrace.
Cuck:
Again, thank the internet for this term. "Cuck" is a term used, primarily, by right-wing internet trolls to insult men they find inferior. The term is a shortened version of the very old term "cuckold" (the husband of an adulterer). The term started off being hilarious, but has now grown redundant. Go on any YouTube video by The Young Turks and I guarantee you the comment section will have the word "cuck" at least 10 times. It's being thrown at people who aren't even married. It's just time to retire the word.
Woke:
"Woke" is a term that has been popularized by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, although it existed shortly before. To be "woke" is to be aware of what is happening around you (especially racially and socially). The reason I hate the word "woke" is because I think it is holding back the, predominantly, black people using the term. The BLM movement was made to showcase that black people are the same as everyone else, and the stigma of blacks as ignorant and violent is completely false. I think it's counterproductive for a class of people who want to erase the notion that they're ignorant by ignorantly using the wrong tense for the word "awake". "Woke" is only helping people look more ignorant!
"We need to talk about...":
I refuse to click on an article that starts with "We need to talk about...". Articles beginning with that title almost always lead to a preachy op-ed about how Americans are being insensitive to some subculture, or worse, lead to a conversation about Voldemort's penis. More than the phrase being annoying and preachy, it's just a sloppy stand-in. We can't think of eye-catching article titles anymore? "We need to talk about..." is now the article headline equivalent of saying "like" or "umm" when pausing in between sentences. Please let's stop using this!
