“People listening to us are wondering what the weather will be like this weekend. »
“Our people are not ready to return to work. »
“People are visibly tired of the CAQ. »
They are gloomy, people, this pre-Christmas. They are worried about their children’s school year, the cost of living, their credit card which will explode with the purchase of gifts. People. YOU. Me.
Personally, I am at the end of this expression which at the moment supplants all others to describe us. Language laziness and refusal to precisely name things, expression people has become the overused formula to talk about those who vote, who live, who walk out, demonstrate, grumble, and who think no less.
All those who are listeners, readers, viewers, citizens, young people, old people, poor people, those who are too rich, parents, workers. In short, synonyms exist. However, we all become, in the mouths of populist leaders or tired politicians: people, beige and anonymous.
In this country champion of soft consensus, we are united under the same banner one size fits all. It doesn’t matter if we overgeneralize and iron out all the differences that make up our flavor. On social networks, people are a hashtag used to denigrate those who are a little slow, those who dare to express themselves, those who are conservative. #people is not a compliment. Generally, #people are deplorable.
I can’t stand this expression anymore. Immediately, my populism detector starts flashing. Because people serves to flatter the voter in the right direction, at all levels of power. It’s a form of barely disguised contempt. We like that people respond to the vox pops, which they call into the telephone boxes. They are good survey dough. When we refer to people Throughout the broadcast or press briefing, I mostly hear condescension.
All this testifies to intellectual poverty. We are not an indistinct herd. We are anonymized in this soft and convenient category, which is stretched to the point of insignificance. The reduction is insulting.
It’s still curious to note that those who suckle, woo, cuddle people are generally positioned above them. Because people, it’s not them! And for good reason. It gets up at 5 a.m., it’s jammed in the traffic of the Charles-de-Gaulle bridge at 5:35 a.m., it looks Double occupation and it has a strong opinion on Lara and Vincent, people.
A few decades ago, people were called the worldor better, the real world. A world ordinary as opposed, I imagine, to fake world, the one who has privileges, who speaks loudly, who the pirates of Quebec love to hate. The real world is the silent majority, THE good people.
By reducing the population to an indistinct mass, people or real people, we can say anything about it. Use it for any purpose. As a politician, for example, we can convince ourselves that the real world still loves us, and damn it lands in the polls. All because we believed that our people were acquired by us. Not the citizens: the people here…
Albert Camus wrote: “To misname things is to add unhappiness to the world. »
Today, a new struggle is taking place around vocabulary. The right-thinking have come up with new semantic paraphernalia. It includes portmanteau words, sharp words, falsely neutral expressions, such as living together, cisgender, racialized… Barbed words that snap like injunctions. We proscribe words. Others become beacons between which you navigate at your own risk. The ideologues of vocabulary and thought do not, however, refute a few vague words, which are so useful. People are part of. We love them left and right.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Young union member, active retiree. Homeless on edge. Dreamy teenager. Discouraged caregiver. Immigrant with three jobs… Behind people, there are stories, life trajectories, reminds our collaborator.
It doesn’t sound very dynamic, people. It’s amorphous. Sometimes I start to imagine that people are fed up. That they want respect. Real listening. Let them be called by their name. Let us take into account their nature, their originality. Citizen, voter. Young union member, active retiree. Homeless on edge. Dreamy teenager. Discouraged caregiver. Immigrant with three jobs. Behind people, there are stories, life trajectories.
But no, we are people ! So, no more stupid than we need to be, we silently, but in large numbers, turn away from these lazy and complacent barkers. It’s not out of cynicism, but out of weariness. We adopt new practices, we inform ourselves through podcasts that speak to us, we get involved in local organizations. More and more citizens are establishing more sincere social ties. We aspire for more.
Tired of being talked to like children. Respect also depends a lot on the words we use.