Wrong or Unacceptable ?

[bunn]

I have noticed a few instances recently where people have said 'This is unacceptable' when what I think what they really mean is: 'This is wrong'.

I can't remember the exact situation now, but I noticed it on the news from some British governmental spokesperson commenting on a human rights abuse of some fairly appalling nature.

Then I noticed it again on "Hugh's Chicken Run*" ( TV program campaigning against intensive chicken farming with Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall.) I am pretty sure that what Hugh meant was not that the practice of intensive chicken farm was unacceptable to him, but that it was also morally wrong.

Is it no longer acceptable to say that you believe something to be wrong?

* if you click the link you can sign a petition to the supermarkets. I'm not sure if there is a lot of point in this, as the programs demonstrated all too clearly, it's not the supermarkets that make people buy tortured chickens: the supermarkets stock them because people demand them, and don't care about the cost to the birds as long as the cost to themselves is minimal. But I signed anyway.

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

This is part of the dreadful tendency to a strange sort of PC language that seems common nowadays. Terrorists and rebels become "insurgants", assassination becomes "execution", and so on.

In this case, it seems to be shorthand for "unacceptable to me" but if that is what is meant, why not say so? "This is unacceptable" begs all sorts of questions: to whom, in what way, by what standards and so on?

It seems to be a way of avoiding giving offence (and annoyed e-mails) but trying to avoid seeming to make a value judgement (while actually making a value judgement.) It drives me mad, and I won't use these bastard words if I can avoid them.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Hmm... Words change their meaning over time, and phrases take on new meanings. When I hear people say "this is unacceptable" in this context, I don't think they mean "this is unacceptable to me", but assume they mean "this is unacceptable, full stop, and something must be done.." I take it as stronger than "this is wrong". You can say something's wrong, but sit back and do nothing. Saying that it cannot be accepted implies that you're going to go out and do something about it.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. 'unacceptable' sounds weaker to me - it sounds like poor schoolwork.