Category: Americanism

I have grown to hate this “word” more than almost any other, and while I don’t fully understand the level of my reaction to it, I can certainly tell you why it bothers me.

If I tell someone about a problem I’m having, and they respond with this word, I am being told they either don’t see my problem as an actual problem, or they’re — at best — unwilling to engage in a conversation about the issue. It is a two letter expression of indifference that hits me far harder than it should.

It doesn’t help that this disyllabic shrug is also a two hundred year old joke.

There’s a disease spreading all over the world that’s killing hundreds of thousands of people, and you have an cheap and easy way of making it less lethal for those around you, but you won’t do it because you might look silly, and you feel fine anyway.

Even if you don’t have any symptoms, wearing a mask will help reduce the odds of anyone you come in contact with getting this life-threatening disease. How it makes you feel is far less important than saving just one life. How can you not figure this out?

Not convinced? Read “COVID-19: How much protection do face masks offer?” by The Mayo Clinic.

Can you really still argue that your absolute right to shoot pesky squirrels and repel foreign invaders is more important that protecting your neighbors from right wing radicalized terrorists — aka boys being boys — with AR-15s?

If your guns are so damn valuable, let’s put a property tax on every weapon and round in your doomsday bunker. I’m far less lethal with my minivan, and I pay taxes on that every year.

Not convinced? Read “Firearm and Ammunition Taxes” at RAND Corporation