New York Magazine - USA (2020-03-02)

10 newyork| march2–15, 2020

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1 For NewYork’s latestissue,literary
critic MollyYoungexploredtheseem­
ingly unstoppablespreadofcorporate­
speak (“GarbageLanguage,”February
17–March 1). Many peoplewhoworkin
industries inundatedwith“garbage lan­
guage” contributedtheirownexperiences.
“Recalls to mindGoethe’squote:When
ideas fail, wordscomehandy,” commenter
LaliZ wrote, explainingthat asaneditorin
the financial industry, “I do battleagainst
garbage language every day. SometimesI
even win.” Kelleyalison wrote, “Ihatehow
this garbage language has seepedinto
academia, so that ‘on-boarding,’‘think
partners,’ etc. are now in fairlycommon
usage even at the Ivy Leagueschool
where I work.” Patrick Porter elaborated
on that: “For the rest of us, someofwhom
work in education, garbage businessspeak
is worse than demoralizing. It relentlessly
promotes the barbarism that we areallput
on earth to make money, that education
must be geared to that task, and measured
accordingly.” Allison Braley, a commun­
ications professional, wrote, “Thebigger
issue is the way many companiesusejar-
gon to keep minorities, newcomersand
people with a different educationoutof
the conversation.” In praisingtheessay,
Leon Neyfakh, the co­creatorofSlow
Burn, wrote, “Part of what makesthis...
essay so good is the visceral contrastbe­
tween the garbage language she’sdescrib­
ing and the relentless clarity andprecision
of the language she’s using.” ChefPadma
Lakshmi t gua
bane of my to k
not alone.” Writing for Slate, though,Mark
Morgioni challenged Young’s premiseand

cametothedefenseofsomecorporatelan­

guage: “My jobwouldbemuchmorecom­

plicated—andtake far, farlonger—with­

outit ...Usedcorrectlyandjudiciously,

thosetermsservetwoinvaluablepurpos­

es:They savetime,andthey clearlycom­

municatemeaningtopeers.Atitscore,

garbagelanguageisjusta sharedsetof

idiomsthathelppeoplemovethrough

meetingsandaccuratelydefinetasks.”

CommenterAnnabelAndrewsconcurred

withMorgioni,“IreallyfeelseenbySlate

rightnow.Corporatespeakis sillybutonce

I stoppedbeinguptightaboutit,I kindof

enjoyedit ...A newonemakingtherounds

atmy workissocialize,asin‘let’sfinalize

thisplanandthensocializeit.’” Some

readersfoundinspirationingarbage lan­

guage inpraisingthestory:@twinksy

calledit,“Sucha ‘value­add.’‘Key take­

away’?CorporateAmerica,‘regroup’ and

‘e volve’awayfromgarbage language.”

AndTheNewYorkTimesBookReview’s

PamelaPauladded,“MollyYoungputs

intoplainbutexcellentwordseverything

I feelandbelieve aboutcorporatejargon.

Hopetotouchbasewithyouat thenext

firesidechat, [Molly].I’ll bringthefire­

place.Willcirclebacksoon!”

2 Stephen S. Hall’s investigation into

the vaping industry spurred a number

of letters from experts in the field (“Who

Thought Sucking on a Battery Was a

Good Idea?,” February 3–16). Thomas

Eissenberg, the co­director of the Center

he Study acco Products at Vir­

a Comm th University, wrote,

“Lungs evolved to deliver oxygen and

expel carbon dioxide. Challenging them

withdailydosesof heated chemicals is a

badideathatispotentially lethal.” Sean

Callahan,a pulmonary and critical­care

physicianinSaltLake City, said, “Vaping in

theUnitedStatesremains the Wild West

andourleaders’feeble attempts have done

littletotameit.” Others suggested that vap­

ingis stillanimportant tool for stamping

outsmoking.David B. Abramsof New

YorkUniversity’sSchool of Global Public

Health wrote that “data conclusively dem­

onstrate that nicotine vaping is substan­

tially safer than smoking deadly cigarettes:

Switching saves many smokers’ lives. Do

not let a moral panic trigger hysteria that

leads society to treat nicotine vaping as if

it is the same as deadly smoking. Doing

so will prolong smoking and itshorrific

damage to health—based on fear, not

facts. 1,300 American smokersprema­

turely die daily.” Sarah Milov, author of The

Cigarette: A Political History, disagreed:

“Public attention and political resources

are now momentarily focused on the spike

in vaping­ associated lung injuries in oth­

erwise healthy teenagers. But thehistory

of tobacco should caution us against

thinking that even acute and deadly lung

illnesses are the biggest problems with

e-cigarettes. It took decades forthe full

consequences of smoking-related dis-

eases to reveal themselves; it took longer

still for the harms of secondhand smoke to

become apparent. The history oftobacco

suggests our limited capacity to anticipate

risk—and, perhaps most tragically, our

abundant ability to individualize blame

once risks are known.”

40 newyork| february 17 march 12020

ByMollyYoung

require an This will

omni-channel push.

GarbageLanguage:Whydocorporationsspeakthewaytheydo?

level-setJustto

moment—fora

key learnings, we can With these^

co-create innovative win-wins.

theWhat’sbusiness-

criticalask?

How futureproof do we

the initiative?

a pin in this and Let’s drop

take it off-line.

february 17march 1 2020 | new york 41

February 17March 1 2020

ByBarbara McQuade, Ezra Klein, Barbara Lee, Frank Rich, Kara Swisher, Jonathan Chait, What winning would look like.

David WallaceWells, and others, p 10

The Second Term

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