Bromides 'R' Us

When other people say 'Don't upset yourself'
they often mean 'Don't you upset me'
and the more we let them say it
the more the tender among us will be upset,
as we unknowingly and forcibly esteem others
more than we are allowed to value ourselves.

Popular Turn Off's (15)

When a politician says of an initiative
that their party/gov't is undertaking
'It is not just about the money'
they might accidentally be honest.

But after that they will speak in lies,
in the form of managerial bromides
that will disguise their indifference
to ordinary people's lives.

It is what they are paid so well for. 

Popular Turn Off's (13)

The illogical overuse of superlatives
by politicians from Micheal Gove to Donald Trump,
and many shades of politician in between in public speech.

Such language is hailed as 'bold and 'inventive'
by their followers, whilst it is actually nonsense on stilts.

The misuse of these superlatives renders language
so meaningless and banal and so turns off the listener
capacity for reason that I dare not quote any examples
for fear of boring the reader into a submission
where their mind goes blank and I am responsible.

We can all find out own examples and silence them
before they numb us into a state of not being able to listen.

Popular Turn Off's (12)

'Slowly, the tide is turning....  '

see also

'The tanker [of state] is slowly changing direction'.

When ever pundits and politicians
talk of slow change it means
that they will be doing too little way too late
for those other people whose serious problems
they are meant to be addressing,
but they will protect their own interests with vigour.

And such talk gets them off the hook twice.

Whatever change happens and good is done
for those living in the future it cannot be credited
to any leader who is living in the present.
  

Popular Turn Off's (6)

'Our prayers and thoughts go with......
(insert name of disaster/suffering people here)'.

The phrase is used by people who don't pray,
and whose thoughts of doubtful consistency,
sufficient that anyone who does think or prays says
'they don't do either and will repeat the phrase
until nobody cares because nobody is listening'.

Fake grief multiplies and subsides
with same ease as fake relief,
whilst any enduring sense of loss
is understood more far more quietly.

Seven Words/Phrases That Make Me Trust Less What The Speaker Says Next

'Frankly',
'Basically'
'If you'd listened to my earlier point...  '
'X's plans do not add up...  '
'Hard working....  '
'Ordinary working families...  '
and last, but far from least,
'Strong and stable government'

The Fear Of Predictions

The conversation that annoys me most
is being told 'You are at a crossroads'.
It is as if my teller knows better than I
what is about to happen to me,
and is being firmly opaque about the detail.

Such talk is a cliche beyond belief.
Some roads will give us choices,
but they will never be obvious
before they are presented
-there is no point in being told.
Only scenes from a past
sufficiently beyond dispute
are fine to be described so-
but there what takes hold
is the art of telling a story.

Pasteurised Politeness

is the language the masses
use to miscommunicate
with each other every day.
No wonder, then, that I find
my mind curdles and shrinks
with the distance I have to keep
from false bonhomie and freshness.