We need to talk about the use of euphemism in our everyday language. Usually, it’s a good thing; it helps us say hard things softly, but it can also unfairly soften what should, or even needs to, shock us.
Today, Americans are less into the reality of hard news than we used to be. We’d rather have it as we like it, as it fits us, or however it’s packaged by those whose spin fits our own personal tendencies.
We recently talked about the expression of “boots on the ground.” This popular lingo dehumanizes our fighting men and women around the world. Our soldiers aren’t “boots”; they are people. We can call them our fighting men and women, our soldiers, perhaps even troops, but they aren’t “boots.” We used to call them “our fighting men” but as our female soldiers have made that term passé, we can modernize, sure, but we can’t dehumanize.
Are we nitpicking? Not really. The magic of verbiage is its ability to take what one person has in his/her mind and succinctly communicate it to another person. If we click the lingo button, it’s fine if it gives our conversation color, but if it modifies the content or neutralizes the profundity thereof, it has rendered our communication ineffective. Worse, if it removes the humanity from any human situation, we’ve made our own efforts pointless and the issues dangerous.
“Mass shooting” – that’s a very dangerous euphemism. An actual “mass shooting” would be sport. It’s a large number of people with guns in a field shooting at clay pigeons, hay targets or tin cans; it’s sport. What we unfortunately experienced twice last week, and repeatedly in our country for decades now, is “mass killing,” “mass murder.” There are dead loved ones in these instances. That’s not shooting. It’s killing. The euphemism damages our population as we become desensitized to these killings, and it’s doing damage to efforts to modify the laws which should prevent this kind of crime from happening. Though, thank goodness, not everyone who is shot at becomes a homicide victim, we’ve got to call these episodes what they are, mass murders and, though we’ve taken to calling the perpetrators “shooters,” they are murderers.
In Indianapolis, eight people were murdered and three more in Austin but, over time, we can barely keep up with the numbers and locations. According to numerous sources including gunviolencearchive.org, America has experienced 25 mass shootings, so far just this April. Worse, we must remember that only those with four or more deaths, not including the murderer, can be called “mass shootings.” It’s a tragedy when even one person is killed, but to call any of these events a “mass shooting” doesn’t do justice to the victims or America’s people. It completely removes the human element from these tragic mass killings and, sadly, that is the intent.
Of all the language humans have at their disposal – musical, spoken, sign language or written – each is a form of communication. All are useful, most are beautiful, some are colorful, some are misleading and some can be downright untruth. However, in all the language we can employ, euphemism is used to modify or mitigate the harshness of its own meaning, most usually used to spare someone’s personal feelings. By the very virtue of its own purpose, it shouldn’t be doled out dangerously or wantonly, or used to create a protective wall around criminals, and certainly never to minimize their crimes, especially murder.
Many Americans are advocating for the reins to be pulled in on guns in this country. Despite what the gun lobby, gun manufacturers and all its profiteers want to sell us as statistics or truth, the evidence from around the world bears out that, yes, America’s obscene murder rate is indeed due to the number and power of the guns of our gun owners at large.
According to the Small Arms Survey, and several other sources, there are 393 million guns in the hands of average Americans today. Whatever the reason, that ludicrous number remains highly unacceptable.
America’s last mass murderer bought his gun and passed his background check, just days before he killed eight people. Those who profit from this mayhem have too much influence over the laws that are supposed to regulate it. How many more mass murders will have to occur before anything at all is done? It’s the people who must call this shot.
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