By Selwyn Duke

Although the creation of the film Idiocracy evidences how
we’re already halfway to an idiocracy — the work reflects decadent
modern culture — it’s a good comedic warning about where we’re headed.
For those too unsophisticated to imbibe such Hollywood fare, know that
the movie presents a dystopian future America dumbed-down to a
preposterous degree. One thing portrayed in the film is the degradation
of language, with, for instance, a doctor character starting an
interrogative with “why come” instead of “how come.” And it is a perfect
example of art imitating life.

Many today will rape the English language, taking pleasure in
mangling and tangling it, confusing corruption with creativity. What
follows are examples of such, starting with the relatively innocuous and
concluding with the more dangerous.

While journalists are supposed to be word men (those were the days,
huh?), they often lead the charge toward idiocracy. It’s not just the
news piece I read a few years back penned in pidgin English — obviously
by someone to whom English isn’t his first language — but those who try
to be “cute.” For example, Golf Channel’s Tim Rosaforte recently
mentioned something that had been revealed and began his sentence with,
“The big reveal is….” But unless he was about to apprise the audience
of a large window jamb’s existence,
“reveal” is a verb, not a noun. The word you’re looking for, Tim, old
boy, is “revelation.” Likewise, let’s dispense with the new and budding
practice of writing things such as “The tells are there,” which seems to
have originated in the poker world. For unless we're talking about a
raised mound at a Middle Eastern archeological site, “tell” is a verb,
not a noun. If one wants to “tell” someone about a thing serving as a
clue, the relevant term is “indication.”

Read the rest here.