My brother argues that society should stop making bad behavior sound cool. Terrorists, gang-bangers, and serial killer are all evil, but on some level you have to admit those are cool labels.
If you want to inhibit a particular behavior, a good rule of thumb is this: Don’t give it a label that would work equally well as a band name.
For example, the media tried to change “suicide bomber” to “homicide bomber,” thinking that was more descriptive and less altruistic sounding. But you can easily imagine a punk rock band called the Homicide Bombers.
Granted, it’s difficult to come up with any name that wouldn’t work as a rock band, but I think you’d agree that a band called the Homicide Bombers would have an easier time getting a new drummer than a band called, for example, Tiffany’s Pimple.
So how can we relabel terrorists to make their activity less cool sounding? I realize that terrorists don’t call themselves terrorists. They think of themselves as martyrs or freedom fighters or whatnot. But you know they watch the media to see how their actions are being received. That’s the whole point.
My brother suggests calling terrorists “dingleberries,” as in “Troops wiped out a nest of dingleberries in a part of the world now commonly known as Earth’s Anus.”
Can you top that?