Terms of Determent

Scott Hardie | April 17, 2024
Are there any terms or phrases that make you permanently disregard someone who uses them in a discussion? I don't mean phrases with which you disagree, but phrases that make you decide that nothing further that this person says is to be taken seriously.

For me, "late-stage capitalism" is thrown around way too much on the left, apparently to mean anything about economics that people don't like. Eggs cost too much? Late-stage capitalism. Favorite restaurant closed? Late-stage capitalism. Can't land a job? It must be late-stage capitalism, even if there's another obvious explanation like a weak resume or sketchy references or poor interview skills. I just find it unbearably ridiculous that people think that they sound smart when using this academic phrase outside of a PhD dissertation, when instead it makes them sound dumb, like they're just quoting something that they saw other people saying online. The right uses "woke" in a similar way: People stopped saying "woke" seriously during the Trump administration, so criticizing "wokeism" or anything "woke" makes you sound more out of touch with each passing year.

What are your conversational turn-offs?