I have grown tired--mighty tired--of the word "butthurt."

[Bicoastal]

Does it offend my tender sensibilities? Not in the least. It's a crude term, but it's crudeness has nothing to do with why I'm sick of it.

"Butthurt" has become so overused that I feel like it's become one of those buzz-words dumb people use in political conversations when they don't have other, more accurate terms at their disposal. I've heard it used as a stand-in for everything from "slightly bothered" to "in a homicidal rage." What's next, saying "Flagnice" instead of jingoism or "Sadpurse" to describe poverty? Has Mike Judge's "Idiocracy" come to pass already?

A little while back, I wrote that "sheeple" is my cue-word to leave whatever discussion I'm involved in, because the speaker or poster can no longer be taken seriously. "Butthurt" is now officially on the list as well, mainly because Fox News folks and Limbaugh acolytes seem to use it the most frequently; recently, I've started to notice progressives using it too. Surely we're better than that!

I know what's coming in the comments below. Yes, yes, I'm "butthurt" over the word "butthurt." If you were thinking of writing that, why don't you go headass (ie F*** yourself)?

[darkangel218]

1. Lmao! no one said anything, yet we get a preemtive "Go f yourselves"!

What a hypocritical OP.

[Posteritatis]

6. "Wah, kids these days and their newfangled speakage!" posts invariably are. (nt)

[Bicoastal]

25. I'm going to let you in on a secret...

...I myself am a "kid." (ie, under 30). And the only place I ever see or hear the word "butthurt" is either in the dankest, grossest message boards the web has to offer...or by older folk who enjoy being as politically cranky as possible.

[Posteritatis]

29. Don't have to be old to have the attitude. That said, see reply #13. (nt)

[Squinch]

2. The word "meme" annoys me. Where the hell did that come from? Two years ago we didn't have memes.

Suddenly you can't have a conversation without hearing about a meme. In the old days, like 2010, we used the word "theme" and it worked just fine.

[Posteritatis]

5. Sure we did. Heard the term for awhile and it was coined in the seventies.

In other news, "oh gawd! living languages evolve! death of society predicted!"

[MicaelS]

8. "Meme" has been around a long time, since 1976 in fact.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme

And I really like the word, especially in today's culture, where ideas can be transmitted, and change extremely quickly. I don't think "theme" fits those characteristic.

And lest you think I'm some young hipster using a buzz word, I'm 55, and remember reading about the term meme in an article in Analog Magazine way back when.

A meme is "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures.

The word meme originated with Richard Dawkins' 1976 book The Selfish Gene. Dawkins cites as inspiration the work of geneticist L. L. Cavalli-Sforza, anthropologist F. T. Cloak and ethologist J. M. Cullen. Dawkins wrote that evolution depended not on the particular chemical basis of genetics, but only on the existence of a self-replicating unit of transmission—in the case of biological evolution, the gene. For Dawkins, the meme exemplified another self-replicating unit with potential significance in explaining human behavior and cultural evolution.

[Fumesucker]

12. Yeah, that's where I heard it first too

And it's a very useful word, treat ideas like genes or pathogen vectors between minds.

[libodem]

15. What about the

Fomites?

[Fumesucker]

17. DU is definitely a fomite

[libodem]

19. Tee hee hee

[Squinch]

39. OK, what you describe is a fad. And though i don't doubt the word may have been around for a while,

it has recently become a - er - fad, and lately has become violently overused.

[Codeine]

35. Fail.

If I may invoke one of your dreaded memes.

[hughee99]

3. I've never heard that word until reading this. n/t

[lordsummerisle]

27. Neither have I n/t

[Son of Gob]

4. This is just a ploy to get "headass" going isn't it?

[Cleita]

7. Sheeple!

[Alamuti Lotus]

9. "Flagnice" is actually pretty good...

I realize it belies the (erstwhile completely valid) point you were making, but that was good.

[Go Vols]

10. Cant say I have ever heard butthurt used

in person,my kid is in his 20's,never heard him or his friends use the word,must be something that came about in the last few years?

[arely staircase]

11. i know, right? eom

[madinmaryland]

13. Oh, FFS!! Lighten up, Francis

[KG]

14. you mad, bro?

[RobertEarl]

16. Do these terms together make sense?

"Cram It" and "Butthurt"

Because i think someone who is all tore up about the word butthurt might have had it crammed? Yes? Maybe?

[libodem]

18. Faux and Limbaugh

Must know it gets under the skin of some liberals. Some here find it homophobic?

Probably delights them to bother us.

[thucythucy]

20. Is "butthurt"

a reference to anal rape?

If so, yeah, then it bothers me, in the same way people indiscriminately using "rape" to describe any unpleasant experience bothers me.

[OldDem2012]

21. Hmmmmm.....Cat sez....

[BigDemVoter]

22. To be totally honest, I've never heard it used. . . .

Maybe in the sense, "Oh my butt hurts, the needle the nurse used was too big!" But in a general way, no, I've never heard it! Am I getting old?

[Dash87]

23. Also "u mad bro?"

The trendiness of trolling as of late is annoying.

[Dreamer Tatum]

24. I feel that way about "kitteh"

And any asshole that uses it.

If you want to talk about your "kitteh," go hang around the other 12-year-olds.

[Captain Stern]

26. Cool story, bro.

Kidding aside....at least give me a chance to get tired of the word "butthurt" before you ruin it for me. I haven't even had time to realize that I should be tired of it by now. I've never heard it.

[Tree-Hugger]

28. Diagnosis

Proctalgia. A lot of people on the internetz suffer from proctalgia.

[slackmaster]

30. I think you are having an inappropriate negative emotional reaction to the use of that term

I suggest that you make an effort to ignore it.

[cherish44]

31. I hate the term "baby bump"

nt

[Ptah]

32. It's on the home page of democraticunderground.com

http://www.democraticunderground.com/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101798901

[Matariki]

33. When you're tired, take a nap.

Problem solved.

[dogknob]

34. Then of course, there's "conspiracy theory..."

A wonderful 3-in-1 tool. The Swiss Army Knife of shutdown tools.

1) Immediately stops the conversation
2) Places stigma/shame upon the person you disagree with
3) Rallies support for your POV, even if you have done nothing to support it.

[MrSlayer]

36. I've always thought it was incredibly stupid.

Just what does it mean anyway? That you feel you've been anally raped over an idea or event you disagree with or are unhappy about?

It's just a stupid term.

[Ghost in the Machine]

37. Headass?

Is that where you do a double backflip and disappear up your own ass??

As for gettting butthurt about the use of "sheeple"... get over it! We have far too damned many sheeple in this country, and that's how we got in the position we're in today. Quit being butthurt and help wake the sheeple up, then maybe we can have some real change, instead of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" that has ruined us. For now, instead of saying "have a nice day", I'm going to tell people to "have an un-butthurt day!"

[quinnox]

38. I think it is stupid sounding and silly but it is not one of the more

annoying internet meme words to me. For instance, "Derp" I think is far more obnoxious. And in the past I HATED - "Wait for it..." - I'm glad that is hardly ever seen anymore.

Most of the time I find trendy internet slang words to be stupid or range from slightly annoying to flat-out obnoxious.

[frostfern]

40. I get more annoyed at people who append word "tard" to the end of a word.

Soooo childish.