Were surrounded with loaded language.
It makes your sentences weak.
Public relations arms of police departments do it all the time.
Both help remove responsibility.
Employers use this tactic all the time, too.
The rules say you have to go to bed.
Eventually, our kid wised up and said, Wait,youmade the rules!
I suggest you do the same.
When you see this kind of language, ask yourself who made the rules?
Who changed the policy?
Who fired the gun?
Then ask yourself why.
Mistakes were made and the non-apology
The phrase mistakes were made may be the ultimate weasel phrase.
Its generally used when someone can no longer deny a fiasco.
It seems like an acceptance of responsibility, but its actually an attempt to deflect.
It essentially attributes the mistakes to themselves, and obscures what mistakes were even made.
Describing an unexcused absence from work or infidelity by saying mistakes were made isnt going to work.
Another tactic of the non-apology is to use phrases like Im sorry if what I did hurt your feelings.
Or even Im sorry you feel that way.
These seem like apologies, but if you read closer, yo can see how they arent.
They take no responsibility, and instead put it back on the person who was wronged.
(Never qualify an apology.
Never follow Im sorry with but.
Consider the most famous literary apology, William Carlos Williams This is Just To Say.
The truth is both statements are factually true and based on thesame Justice Department report.
The only difference is how you feel about the politician involved.
Its akin to saying something like I dont care what anyone says, youre a great person.
Either way, it deserves a deeper conversation.
To that end, Id love to hear some of your own personal examples of loaded language.
