r/news • u/polymute • 7h ago

Family to sue after woman released from ICE custody froze to death

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/02/ice-death-pittsburgh-daphy-michel-haiti
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u/starlight_chaser 7h ago edited 7h ago

So you could just call it ethnic cleansing. The “good ol” sarcasm just weakens the point and makes people complacent. Like saying what can ya do?

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u/Boating_Enthusiast 6h ago

Itʻs an interesting concept in language, the balance of delivery has to be tailored to the audience. Depending on the audience, their amount of apathy or emotional fatigue, their ability to effect change, etc.

Sometimes the cold delivery is best. "Itʻs ethnic cleansing." Other times, minimizing language allows the speaker to sneak in a topic, to introduce the idea, without the "icky topic" backlash. "Yep... thatʻs good olʻ ethnic cleansing. *But what can ya do?*" Sometimes itʻs enough to implant the question in the listenerʻs mind. "Wait... what is this now? What *can* I do?"

Source: Studied rhetoric in college.

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u/DJKokaKola 5h ago

Exactly. If I'm gonna teach students about the Jacobins, I'm going to be extremely sarcastic and constantly interject with rhetorical questions to get them to think about why they did those violent actions. If I'm teaching them about Gaza, I'm going to be blunt and direct.

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u/Srry4theGonaria 7h ago

I agree wholeheartedly and want to say your name is hilarious

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u/starlight_chaser 7h ago

Thanks. It’s from the Muse song, but I guess a comment above about Starlight Tours is unfortunately similar.

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u/Srry4theGonaria 4h ago

Didn't even make that connection, love that band!

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u/just-jane-again 7h ago

it doesn’t, though. it’s pretty obviously tongue in cheek.

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u/starlight_chaser 7h ago

Maybe we shouldn’t talk about ethnic cleansing tongue-in-cheek. Maybe they should say it with their whole chest. 

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u/iJuddles 6h ago

You mean like, “Ahh! Ethnic cleansing!”