Monday, March 18, AD 2024 11:45pm

Weasel Words and Theodore Roosevelt

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The more I study Theodore Roosevelt, the more I appreciate the impact he had on this nation, both in large and small ways.  He brought several phrases, for example, into common usage in this country.  One of these is “weasel words”.  Roosevelt did not invent the phrase, he noted that he first heard it used in conversation in 1879, but when he used it the phrase quickly entered American popular usage.  Roosevelt’s most famous use of the phrase was on May 31, 1916 in a speech entitled Mr. Wilson’s Weasel Words in which he attacked Wilson’s call for “voluntary universal military training”, Roosevelt viewing such a plan as inadequate and calling for a draft.

One might legitimately criticize Theodore Roosevelt for many things over his strenuous public life, but use of weasel words-never!

 

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Pinky
Pinky
Wednesday, August 24, AD 2016 7:53am

I like weasel words. Not euphemisms like “voluntary universal military training”, but words that temper the impact of a statement. On the internet we’re supposed to say “you’re wrong”. I’d rather say “I think you’re wrong”, or “you could be right, but I think you’re overlooking something…”. It’s about not being a jerk.

I just had a chat with my brother-in-law about “The Democrat Party”. I was saying to him that there’s no point in antagonizing the listener before you even get to your point. Anyway, the virtue is in the middle, somewhere between cowardice and obnoxiousness.

Mike Petrik
Mike Petrik
Wednesday, August 24, AD 2016 8:32am

Fair point, Pinky. The Internet could use more weasel words in your sense of the term.

Don, have you read Morris’s trilogy? While I would take issue with a fair number of TR’s policies, there is no denying that he was an admirable “man in full.”

William P. Walsh
William P. Walsh
Friday, August 26, AD 2016 2:31pm

Teddy Roosevelt is inspiration personified a manly man and a presidential paradigm. It will be noted that he was considered a “progressive” but I think only in an incipient manner that never developed into the distorted view of reality that currently goes by that appellation. If asked for my favorite quote of his, I will offer his rather humble assertion that “It is not having been in the dark house that matters but having come out”.

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