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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

"Shots Rang Out"

...is an appalling American euphemism for

SOMEONE SHOT SOMEONE

...and “rang”: a gunshot is so not a bell.

Remember the Gulf War reporting? “I can hear the sound of tracer fire around me.” =

I CAN TELL THAT BULLETS ARE RIPPING THROUGH PEOPLE'S FLESH

4 comments:

  1. Ergatives, yes! How easy it is to absent the agency of a white gunman.

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  2. Kind of like "a woman was raped yesterday".... It's NEVER reported as "a man raped a woman yesterday".

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  3. The passive voice phrase in question sounds rather more British murder mystery parlance than American lexicon to me.

    Actually it may be a valid representation of contemporary America. In the ultimate expression of a political state as a manifestation of Christendom's mandate to eschew individual responsibility, one may truthfully say that there are bullets flying everywhere and at all times in America, no one is individually responsible because they have the right to shoot, the state is not responsible because it allows all sorts of militarily weapons in circulation as well as extremist nuts to wield them, and American society is not collectively responsible as we all as have the Second Amendment. So if joyous shots do ring out, it is the sound of America singing!

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