Robert Witriol

August 24, 2004

Daniel:

Speaking of “Doltspeak” – have you observed how common it has become for people to refer to the most heinous miscreants as “gentleman”? On TV I hear this term applied to murderers, terrorists, child molesters, you name it. What’s wrong with “man”? This is insane.

There’s got to be an NPR commentary in this for you.

Many miscreants are, and have always been, gentlemen. However, I agree that people speaking on media should not refer to them as such, unless they are. When they are not, they should call them knaves.