The New Verbal Irritant

For a long time, conversation was punctuated with the word "like" - an annoying verbal tic. Now there's a new one, and it's driving me crazy: "sort of," and its variant, "kind of." I first noticed this regularly spouted  from Chris Hayes on MSNBC, who has even used "sort of" more than once in the same sentence! Rachel Maddow falls back on it too, but not as often. Please, Rachel, not you, too???

Then last night I watched 2 fairly recent episodes of Close-Up with the Hollywood Reporter, the Director Roundtable and the Documentary Roundtable (I'd taped them a few weeks ago). The prevalence of these two phrases was unbelievable! I started jotting down just some of the instances:

First up was Damien Chazelle, LaLa Land director:
"kind of make sure. . ."
"sort of challenge. . ."
"kind of thing. . ."
"sort of key sequences. . ."
"kind of sky. . ."

I moved on to the Documentary Directors. By far, the worst offender was Ezra Edelman, the director of OJ: Made in America. I could barely write fast enough:
"sort of living with it. . ."
"sort of what is truth?"
"sort of relative to. . ."
"sort of developed. . ."
"sort of guidance. . ."
". . . their own sort of world. . ."
"sort of the victims themselves. . ."
"sort of infinite wisdom. . ."
"sort of got into the process. . ."
"sort of use these images. . ."
"kind of for me. . ."

Next up was Life: Animated's Director Roger Ross Williams:
"sort of move out of my way. . ."
"sort of created. . ."
"sort of spearheaded. . ."

Then we had Kristen Johnson, director of Cameraperson, with:
"sort of questions of representation. . ."
"sort of who is choosing to tell it. . ."
"sort of connect to. . ."
"sort of the way that there is. . ."
"sort of points to. . ."

and Josh Kriegman, director of Weiner.  He was a definite improvement, but the phrase "kind of" still crept in as he spoke:
"kind of an emotional remove. . ."
"kind of a distance. . ."

The feebleness of these phrases is what I find most irritating. Take ownership of your opinion! If you believe in what you're saying, the "sort of" qualifier isn't necessary. The speaker would sound much more confident and assured without it. You either "got into the process" or you didn't. They were either "questions of representation" or something else, and if something else, then describe it. It was either "an emotional remove" or it wasn't. They were either "key sequences" or they weren't. Etc., etc., etc.

I found it interesting that neither Raul Peck (director of I Am Not Your Negro) nor Werner Herzog (director of Into the Inferno) were guilty of using "sort of" or "kind of." To me, their words sounded much wiser and more deliberate than those of the other speakers. I'm not sure if that's because they're more mature or simply that they hold firm opinions. In any case, it was a joy and relief to hear them speak.

As Rachel Maddow would say, "take a listen." It's sort of all you'll notice once you notice it.