“Very concerning?” Is that the best you can do?
For the past few years, I’ve been noticing the use of the term “concerning” and some of the places where it pops up, often in the news.
Most recently, the Washington Post quoted a former city council member in Uvalde, Texas as saying, “What the community had learned so far about the police response is ‘very concerning.’” (a)
In Western Australia, when police officers verbally abused and then dropped off two 14-year-old boys outside of town, endangering their lives, the police superintendent said, “It is concerning that police officers overstepped the mark...” (b)
Center for American Progress attorney and women’s health analyst Elyssa Spitzer recently noted women of color and LGBTQ people already have enough problems getting access to health care. In so doing, she said (about the effects of the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade) that:
“It is very concerning, and very alarming and would devastate access for many millions of women in the United States.”
She went on to say that subjecting women to carry an unintended pregnancy to term “is immensely painful, and arduous and a violation of human rights.”
I can forgive her for using this predictable and namby pamby phrase because she went on to use more appropriate words like alarming, devastate, immensely painful, arduous, and violation. (c)
Regarding China’s suspected 2021 testing of a hypersonic weapon system, American General Mark Milley called “very concerning” this unwelcome development in the escalating competition between Washington and Beijing. (d)
Yes, General Milley, when China decides to test new weapon systems, that is not only concerning, but terrifying.
Professor Liam Smeeth, in discussing a 2021 analysis of how ethnicity increases the likelihood of death from covid-19, said, “It is very concerning to see that the higher risks faced by people from [BAME*] backgrounds are not attributable to identifiable underlying health conditions.” [Black, Asian, minority ethnic] (e)
What an understatement.
A global tech trade association, in commenting about the potential new digital sales tax being considered by the Treasurey of the United Kingdom, said, “It is very concerning that the United Kingdom is considering development of a new digital tax as negotiators from more than one hundred governments are simultaneously working to finalise reforms to the international tax landscape.” (f)
This about an action that would adversely affect millions of small businesses and micro-businesses. Concerning? How about hot enough to declare a 10-alarm fire?
Navajo police, in reporting on their investigation into the disappearance of an elderly woman in 2021 said, “It is very concerning,” when speaking to a local newscaster on KRQE tv in Albuquerque. (g)
I’m certain Ella Mae Begay’s family felt much more than concerned at the time, as they do still. This master rug weaver, caregiver, loving elder, and matriarch has yet to be found. Glossing over the horror of this event does everyone in the Navajo Nation a disservice.
There are thousands of additional examples. Nearly every time someone is talking about a worrisome, devastating, troubling, shameful development in the news, someone feels the need to label it “very concerning.”
In my opinion, this is an extreme dilution, reduction, and avoidance of what’s actually occurring in most of these cases.
It might be very concerning if I can’t find my iPhone, or if it rains when your car windows are down. It may be very concerning, indeed, if I forget to pay my electric bill or spill ketchup on a neighbor’s new carpet.
But when someone is kidnapped, children are murdered in cold blood, Black Americans are terrorized once again in a grocery store in the middle of the day, Elon Musk decides to manipulate one of the largest social media platforms in the world for his own gain, Mitch McConnell once again puts on his obstructionist waistcoat to prevent assistance from going to his fellow Americans, or Vladimir Putin decides to force 8 million Ukrainians to abruptly become displaced persons…. that is NOT Very Concerning.
That is tragic, blasphemous, shameful, horrifying, indecent, unforgivable, disgusting, beyond belief, crushing, and so much more.
Please don’t try to rob us of our genuine emotional responses to terrible news.
It doesn’t create a more positive world, it just leaves us feeling disconnected from reality and wondering why our own personal emotional responses bear no resemblance to what the reporter, the commentator, the politician, or the police chief, is saying.
It’s bad enough that these things are happening; let’s not make everyone feel crazy, too, as if they’re overreacting or over-feeling.
“My guess is that political writers and other media manipulators rediscovered adjectival ‘concerning’ as a useful euphemism for words that might frighten voters or consumers.” Maeve Maddox
Amen sister.
p.s. if you’re curious about the grammatical side of ‘Very Concerning’
Grammarist.com responds to multiple examples of writers and usage authorities decrying this term, but not for the same reasons I am decrying it.
Someone explains why we should not complain when the word concerning is flipped from a preposition (e.g. “This is concerning the chairs on my patio”) to an adjective.
I personally don’t care if it’s used as an adjective, I just think it’s being MIS-used as an adjective.
Grammarist says: “No one questions upsetting, disturbing, distressing, or alarming. If we accept these words, we should accept that concerning is a legitimate word, even if we don’t like it.”
Okay. Still, I would vastly prefer to see the words upsetting, disturbing, distressing or alarming when the occasion warrants it!
Or, for that matter, given the subject matter and the occasions that seem to be inciting the repeated and unsatisfactory use of “concerning” (from my point of view), I’d much rather hear disappointing, horrific, inexcusable, unfathomable, or infuriating.
Dailywritingtips.com has weighed in on the matter of using ‘concerning’ as an adjective (thank you Maeve Maddox):
“If hearing the word concerning used as an adjective to mean “causing anxiety” gives you a chalkboard moment, you may as well get used to it. The usage has yet to make its way into all the dictionaries, but it has hit the mainstream and it won’t be turned back.”
She goes on to say: “My guess is that political writers and other media manipulators rediscovered adjectival ‘concerning’ as a useful euphemism for words that might frighten voters or consumers.”
Yes, Mauve, I’ll bet you’re right, and that is what I find CONCERNING.
It’s this paring down of reality, parsing words to eliminate an adequate and authentic emotional response to something abhorrent, regretful, terrible, shameful, or disgusting that I, similarly, find CONCERNING.
Maddox suggests a few comparisons as a way of seeing and feeling the difference. Here are two of her comparison examples. Notice your own response.
“Increased juvenile drug use is disturbing.
Increased juvenile drug use is concerning.
The rise in global temperatures is troubling.
The rise in global temperatures is concerning.”
And this I find to be the best summary from her article, which gets to the heart of the matter. Maddox says:
“It seems to me that ‘concerning’ has the effect of distancing a perceived threat by making it seem to be a matter to be watched, but perhaps not one to get too excited about for the present.”
Yep. That’s what I was trying to say.
. . . . .
References
(a) https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/28/uvalde-school-shooting/
by Meriah Kruse, Life Force Marketing
June 15, 2022
