Pushing back, pushing back, waaaay back!

An article today about conservatives on a college board said, "some alumni who appreciated the old Dartmouth are pushing back.”

The meme “pushing back” seems to have a toehold in discourse. It hasn’t reached triteness yet, but the trend is there. I like it because the meme it correlates with is one I got sick of years ago.

First, in the 1980s, came ‘sharing.’ In the business world, meetings and conferences weren’t feely enough if they didn’t begin with, “I have something I want share with you.” This got real old real fast but stayed around for fifteen years.

“Sharing” was replaced by “reaching out.” I cursed ATT’s commercials emploring us to “reach out and touch someone,” oh, and while you’re at it, pay us for it.

Unfortunately, we’re still “reaching out.” Whenever I run into “X reached out to Y,” I stop reading whatever it is I’m reading and go to the next article. Reaching out is so gay.

And that’s what I like about the new meme. Enough reaching out. It’s time to push back. Don’t you know there’s a war going on?