From: NPR
Stuff Happens, And The Way We Talk About It Matters
October 13, 2015
NPR:
When discussing the Oregon shooting at Umpqua Community College last week, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush explained that “stuff happens,” suggesting that such events can’t be prevented and, by implication, that legislators — and gun control laws — are not responsible.
When asked whether Pope Francis’s controversial meeting with gay marriage opponent Kim Davis was the result of an intentional set up, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi’s assistant responded: “No…these things happen.”
Are these linguistic maneuvers merely ornamental or do they genuinely influence how people think about the events being described — and about the moral responsibility of the people involved in bringing them about?
Read the whole story: NPR
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