Clichés

Clichés, among other things, is destroying our language and us, via Adbusters:

Clichés are not only unoriginal; they are dangerous. Cliché is the thoughtless regurgitation of received ideas. To that end, cliché is among the ultimate instruments of ideology…

By “simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in,” Orwell wrote, clichés can “construct your sentences for you — even think your thoughts for you.” A language that is reduced to clichéd, bumper-sticker slogans is not the equal of thought — it is its pure, unmitigated opposite. And an unthinking person is the ideal vessel for corrosive, wrongheaded — and, yes, dangerous — ideas.