"Clearly"

Earlier this week treasury secretary Henry Paulson stated that the bailout package they passed is "clearly helped stabilize" the financial system. Clearly. It's such a condescending word. In fact, it smacks of The Emperor's New Clothes. Clearly anyone who uses such language is simply trying to hide the fact that they are having trouble coming up with concrete evidence to support their views, or that they know they are naked but don't want to admit it to anyone else. Clearly, however, when something is or should be clear to everyone it is okay to use the word "clearly".

Unfortunately, the current political environment clearly favors this sort of statement. If Mr. Paulson had stated that the bailout "appears to be helping" he would clearly be required to account for the taxpayer money he used and would clearly be required to show how using that money is benefitting the taxpayer. Because he used a clearly superior statement, anyone who challenges him is automatically putting himself or herself in the position of being someone who doesn't understand what is "clear" to everyone else. Clearly not many people would subject themselves to this sort of ridicule just to point out the fact that somebody is clearly mistaken.

At the GNU Public Dictatorship we believe that nobody should be ridiculed for challenging the veracity of statements made by people who are clearly their intellectual superiors, and therefore promise that we will never use the word "clearly" to cover up our own nakedness. If we use the word "clearly" you can be sure that we have done our homework. At the GNU Public Dictatorship we are nothing if not clearly better than the competition!