Is it time to retire phrases like "law and order" and "tough on crime" from the political lexicon?

[ck4829]

I remember seeing that it was time to stop using *checks notes* as a thing...

*Checks Notes* Was the Perfect Trump-Era Twitter Joke. Can We Be Done With It Now?

There may be nothing Twitter is better at than taking a reasonably funny joke and running it into the ground. Recall the whiplash of “Big Dick Energy,” a concept that went from clever to annoying in the space of about 24 hours flat. But not all Twitterisms follow that same trajectory of white-hot viral moment and subsequent spectacular flameout; some of them earn a place in the Twitter vernacular so gradually you barely notice and then become tired just as imperceptibly. All of a sudden, you wake up one August slow-news day and decide that’s it—you never want to see another person do a *checks notes* gag on Twitter ever again.

*Checks notes* had a good run. For the uninitiated, the construction, which sometimes takes the form of (checks notes), is used to indicate that a person has paused what he is saying to make sure he is reading his notes correctly, because he can’t quite believe what’s coming out of his mouth. It’s usually part of some faux-dialogue a tweeter is making up, which is a common practice in tweets. (No one is actually checking any notes; no one even has any notes! The notes only exist for the purpose of the joke.) Some advanced searches reveal that the note-check existed as a tweet format before the dividing line that is the 2016 presidential election, but the last two years are when it really kicked into high gear. It’s sometimes accompanied by a *squints at teleprompter* or similar stage directions for good measure.

If an example will help, see how much-followed journalist Ken Klippenstein recently employed it in a (pretty good) Space Force joke:

Gov't: Sorry we can't give you healthcare, we had to stick to absolute necessities like (checks notes) a Space Force
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) August 9, 2018

Above, Klippenstein is pointing out the irony of the Trump administration’s interest in a pie-in-the-sky nutty project like Space Force, when, hello, what about health care? At the same time, he is drawing attention to politicians’ habit of sticking to party lines that don’t hold up to any sort of scrutiny. It’s also about a total unwillingness to deviate from a previously agreed-upon script. *Checks notes*, asterisks and all, is basically just a way of asking, “Can you believe this shit?” It’s a completely appropriate cliché for our current moment, populated as it is by politicians who are forever trying to steamroll their way through obvious contradictions; there’s no disputing that. It’s just that at this point, it’s incredibly overdone.

https://slate.com/technology/2018/08/checks-notes-was-the-perfect-trump-era-twitter-joke-lets-let-it-die.html

"Will not die"
https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/checks-notes-meme/

"Bit annoyed" by hearing/seeing it
https://www.reddit.com/r/PetPeeves/comments/1ebseej/people_who_say_checks_notes/

"dumb", "Played out"
https://www.resetera.com/threads/one-meme-thats-dumb-is-the-check-notes-check-notes-meme.172613/page-2

Really?

So I guess I'll be the first person to ask because you know the media is not doing it...

With a convicted and sentenced felon now as the president-elect, is it time to retire the phrases "law and order" and "tough on crime" as they have lost their meaning?

4 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Words have meaning and these words have lost their meaning. It's time to give these phrases the Old Yeller treatment. Sorry boys.
	4 (100%)
	No, these words may not have meaning but we can not say they are overdone, we need them so the media and Republicans can attack our side and policies with these meaningless phrases and attach arbitrary situational ad hominem attacks on our party and policies
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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