I've always thought the concept of political correctness...calling things by another name to make them sound more neutral or palatable is a stupid, and in some cases, detestable practice. It's really one edge of the fine blade known as bullshit. The other edge, of course, would be buzzwords and phrases like 'leveraging deployed solutions.'
People resort to this level of communication when they're either socially crippled or are so inherently wrong as to actually have the need to literally re-word their comments to slip them in under the radar. It's the old 'this is shit / this is fine fertilizer' routine.
Here's a fine example:
Bob Zitter, Chief Technology Officer for HBO, speaking at a cable broadcaster's conference in Las Vegas last Tuesday, as suggesting that customers might accept the concept of digital rights management [DRM] if it were named something else.
Zitter suggested, according to the report, that the technology should be marketed in such a way that it conveys a message that viewers could "use content in ways they haven't before." For that reason, he is suggesting the term "Digital Consumer Enablement. [DCE]"
If that's not a bullshit artist at work, I don't know what is. Think about this for a second. Calling DRM an 'Enabler' is like calling handcuffs 'Personal Freedom Enhancers.' It's totally illogical and is nothing more than a cheap trick designed to fool non-techies into thinking that it's something new and good.
Call a spade a spade.
