The word "meddle" is like nails on a blackboard to me. Or an icepick through the brain.

[Pacifist Patriot]

Whatever.

I am fed up to my back teeth with that word.

It wasn't meddling! That is what you do to your relatives to annoy them. Meddling is sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong. It's less about achieving a desired outcome, and more about being a pest and insinuating you know how to do things better than the other person(s).

Sure, it involves an element of disrupting relationships other people are having, but Russian intrusion into our election process was not meddling. It was criminal interference. It was an orchestrated attack. It was a covert operation. Fine, insert the word alleged in there if you want to split hairs since there hasn't been a trial yet.

I'm sure the words and phrases I've used aren't any more legally precise than meddling. I'm not a lawyer after all. But for the love of representative democracy don't fucking call it meddling! Its connotation diminishes the severity of the conspiracy. Given the indictments, I'm confident of the accuracy of that last word at any rate.

<Here endeth my rant to the media (Wolf Blitzer - knock it the fuck off with saying "meddling" every ten seconds) who won't read this anyway )

[Fred Sanders]

1. Election corruption, because that is what it was and "corruption" is the word of the year.

[lapfog_1]

2. I think of this

Those Meddling Kids!!!

[vlyons]

3. me too

It's a state of war

[coti]

4. Yes, the word is "attack"

The integrity of our democracy was attacked by our enemy

[niyad]

5. thank you. I have the same reaction.

[Different Drummer]

6. Agreed. "Meddling" is a far too benign way of describing what happened.

I like the phrase "election sabotage."

[PearliePoo2]

7. Raising hand here to agree with you! I HATE that word for what's happened here!

Cyber war. We were attacked.

I have heard push back at least three times on the news by guests telling the hosts it is NOT just meddling and quit using that word. One pundit said, "Meddling is what your pesky mother-in-law does when interfering in your marriage."
So maybe there's hope yet.

[The Genealogist]

8. When I hear the word meddle I think of Scooby Doo

You know, the bad guy always curses the gang as meddling kids. What Russia did is violate our sovereinty. They attacked us. Meddling doesn't cut it.

[janx]

9. It is baffling. I posted this yesterday:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210893583#post5

[Pacifist Patriot]

11. Sorry I missed that.

George Orwell reference is spot on.

[janx]

13. No problem! It can't be said often enough.

[BigmanPigman]

10. I have hated it since I first heard it and was certain it was only temporary.

The media and its timid reporting won't use the words LIES or ATTACK. Untruths/falsehoods and meddling does not convey the enormous, malicious reality of the attack of our country by our enemy. We are in a national security crisis, a cyber war and the most severe words should be used.

[PearliePoo2]

12. I just caught the end of an interview on CNN. I'm not sure who he was but...

he brought up this very issue. He said this wasn't meddling and that word should NOT be used. He said this was an attack on our democracy! He was pissed. Brook Baldwin was nodding and said, "I agree with you."

[Tatiana]

14. Yeah. Mention this to your Congresspersons, too.

It's an attack. I have noticed that many in the media are starting to call it an attack as well.

[Grammy23]

15. The word meddling so minimizes what was done to this country

By a foreign adversary with the aid of some (many!) of our own citizens. It almost makes it sound humorous or clever of them. Aren’t they cute little scamps?

Wolf is certainly not the only person using this word. Lots of people have taken to using it and at this point, it makes me want to yell at the TV, “This was a crime, you ninnies!” Are you just stupid or complicit??

[Pacifist Patriot]

16. No he isn't. Not by a long shot. Just heard him most recently.

[Grammy23]

17. Not aiming that last comment at Wolf, by the way.

Just in general at people who continue to use the word when it is very clear this went far beyond meddling. Our country’s very foundations are being rocked and tested in a way we’ve never seen. It is maddening to have this crisis described as a misdemeanor or prank. I hope if enough of us complain and bring it to their attention, the commentators will start using a more appropriate word like attack.

[VOX]

18. Agreed. "Shenanigans" has to be tossed out as well.

Shenanigans are ditching your high school friends, or short-sheeting a student's dorm bed. Shenanigans are taking a slug from your parents' liquor cabined on a home-alone Saturday afternoon.

And yet this silly, archaic word is being overused in the media to describe serious issues like gerrymandering and voter suppression.

[Pacifist Patriot]

19. Oh thank heavens that one hasn't penetrated my consciousness.

I'd probably run off the road.