The Anger of Compassion

Myself Likes This Guy's Point

Jeremy Clarkson, on abusing the Queen's English, begins with:

Wog. Spastic. Queer. Nigger. Dwarf. Cripple. Fatty. Gimp. Paki. Mick. Mong. Poof. Coon. Gyppo. You can’t really use these words any more and yet....

and runs with it from there. His particular examples have more to do with life in the UK than the US, although one can imagine relevant parallel examples. But then...then he hits it out of the park:

And what’s with all the reflexive pronoun abuse? I’ve written about this before but it’s getting worse. Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject and the object of a sentence are the same person or thing. Like “I dress myself”. You cannot therefore say “please contact myself”. Because it makes you look like an imbecile.

If you send a letter to a client saying “my team and me look forward to meeting with yourself next Wednesday”, be prepared for some disappointment. Because if I were the client I’d come to your office all right. Then I’d stand on your desk and relieve myself.

I’m not a grammar freak — I can eat, shoot and then take it or leave it — but when someone says “myself” instead of “me” I find it more offensive than if they’d said “spastic wog”.

Ugh. And he's so very, very right. Let me be clear here: Marine Corps and Army officers, this means you. Stop it. Just...stop it.

(Hat tip: Arts and Letters Daily)

Posted by Craig Ceely at January 26, 2006 10:21 AM