Stretching definitions so they aren't even accurate, and making everything seem much worse than it actually is? One example (from t.v. commercials): "Do you suffer from (fill in health topics that could be quite minor)" Another example: (t.v. commercial urging people to shop at their store, rather than a competitor's store, because the competitor charges higher prices): "Don't be a victim!" And another example- stretching 'trauma' to mean any difficult or unpleasant experience.
What I really don't like is calling everybody a hero...just because they did what would be expected. Like a kid calling 911 if something happened to their mother,,,or someone who has to put up with an illness being called a hero..I mean..that term is so over used. I also notice that people who really do heroic things tend to downplay it, and say they are just doing what they should have done. I think being a hero should be reserved for those who really go beyond what is expected..and really put themselves out there for someone else, like taking out a shooter regardless of your own peril or something. I would like to see another term used besides "hero.".for those who think quickly, but the element of risk to themselves is low.
The reverse is also true. When someone shoots up a school full of kids or straps a bomb onto their body and blows themselves up in a crowded building, someone in the media will refer to them as a "coward." Well, someone who takes guns into a school and kills a bunch of people before killing themselves and, even more particularly, the person who blows themselves up for whatever their cause might be, these people might be a lot of things, but they aren't cowards.
You have a real point there Ken, it can't easy to do that however, to an extent, I would think they were cowards because instead of facing whatever is really wrong inside themselves or with their world, I don't care how frustrated they are, they take out a bunch of innoccent people who have never done them any harm. I mean really??? A better solution can't be found than that?
"the person who blows themselves up for whatever their cause might be, these people might be a lot of things, but they aren't cowards." My sentiment exactly, voiced in the past, amongst (I learned) a bunch of bleeding-heart P.C.-ers who would have tarred and feathered me, given the chance!
Yes they are Cowards. It takes more guts to live in a world where you hate so many things but live on any way, instead of giving up your life for the promise of paradise.
Some days I feel like giving up television all together. It has too much influence on how we think and talk about things. Television blurs and distorts words such as coward, victim, and hero. Sometime I think everyone would benefit from taking television breaks simply to restore how they think.
IMO, taking one's own life, no matter what-all else is involved during the deed, might take place due to madness, illness, phobia, dementedness, drugs, and a host of others, but certainly not cowardice. Frank cowardice "lack of courage to face danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc." http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cowardice
You know what...I have Medicaid and we have no adult dental services. I and others who are dental industry people, are trying for 2 yrs. now to get Medicaid to have adult dental services that a Republican Gov. took away...on the opposite end of your question here is a situation that is so serious that no one is paying any attention to at all!