If we’re putting effort into fixing how society uses words, can we work on flammable versus inflammable first? Then I vote for fixing the odd one out in the terrible, terrific, horrible, horrific quad. Then the split between awful and awe. Then…
You’re making a semantic argument, which is kinda useless because what you’re suggesting wouldn’t change anything substantially, just the language we use to describe it. People would still go to the same programs to get the same qualifications, they would just be called something different.
But language has inertia, and you’re never going to get people to stop calling them doctors, no matter how much you insist that they’re called “health engineers” or “A&P technicians” or whatever you come up with.
Why not focus on something else like the much-needed systemic reforms in healthcare; getting business interests out of the medical system; socializing and universalizing healthcare if you live in a backwater country like the US; making sure mental, vision, hearing, and dental are included in that; training enough medical professionals and opening enough clinics to reduce waitlists and ensure everyone has timely access to the care they need; updating standard practices to be consistent with cutting edge research (this is especially important in mental healthcare!); actually funding research to find effective treatments even if that means entrenched healthcare companies offering subpar options have to adapt or become obsolete; et cetera.
So many things to be concerned with that are more important than what we call the people with a medical degree…
Reforming the medical system is a pointless waste of time. We need to ban fossil fuels and animal agriculture. Animals are being slaughtered by the millions by factory farms. We shouldn’t waste time improving the way we care for humans, when humans are already doing so much better than other creatures like cows and corals. It’s a waste of effort to secure such marginal improvements for humans, when we can do so much more for animals.
Actually, never mind. Dismissing problems by comparing them to bigger problems, AKA whataboutism, doesn’t actually make the world a better place. It doesn’t increase effort spent on the big problems, it just reduces effort on the smaller ones and makes the world a worse place. I retract the above paragraph; medical care reform is important too, even if it’s less impactful. And physicians calling themselves doctors, though relatively inconsequential, still annoys the crap out of Me.
If the purpose of an MD isn’t to be a teacher, why do they use the word doctor? Doctor means teacher. Pick a different word!
I’m staring to think MDs aren’t actually doctors!
If we’re putting effort into fixing how society uses words, can we work on flammable versus inflammable first? Then I vote for fixing the odd one out in the terrible, terrific, horrible, horrific quad. Then the split between awful and awe. Then…
no. also you missed horrid
I didn’t miss it. It just doesn’t cleanly fit into this framework (imagine it as a square table instead of a list):
Horror + -ble = horrible (bad)
Horror + -ific = horrific (bad)
Terror + -ble = terrible (bad)
Terror + -ific = terrific (good)
I’m suggesting we need a terrid and it should have something to do with, um, fish. no! whales! they’re so afraid of dirt they went back to the sea
Genius! Also, did you know “whale” comes from “large sea fish?” Ridiculous. Another one for the list.
You’re making a semantic argument, which is kinda useless because what you’re suggesting wouldn’t change anything substantially, just the language we use to describe it. People would still go to the same programs to get the same qualifications, they would just be called something different.
But language has inertia, and you’re never going to get people to stop calling them doctors, no matter how much you insist that they’re called “health engineers” or “A&P technicians” or whatever you come up with.
Why not focus on something else like the much-needed systemic reforms in healthcare; getting business interests out of the medical system; socializing and universalizing healthcare if you live in a backwater country like the US; making sure mental, vision, hearing, and dental are included in that; training enough medical professionals and opening enough clinics to reduce waitlists and ensure everyone has timely access to the care they need; updating standard practices to be consistent with cutting edge research (this is especially important in mental healthcare!); actually funding research to find effective treatments even if that means entrenched healthcare companies offering subpar options have to adapt or become obsolete; et cetera.
So many things to be concerned with that are more important than what we call the people with a medical degree…
Reforming the medical system is a pointless waste of time. We need to ban fossil fuels and animal agriculture. Animals are being slaughtered by the millions by factory farms. We shouldn’t waste time improving the way we care for humans, when humans are already doing so much better than other creatures like cows and corals. It’s a waste of effort to secure such marginal improvements for humans, when we can do so much more for animals.
Actually, never mind. Dismissing problems by comparing them to bigger problems, AKA whataboutism, doesn’t actually make the world a better place. It doesn’t increase effort spent on the big problems, it just reduces effort on the smaller ones and makes the world a worse place. I retract the above paragraph; medical care reform is important too, even if it’s less impactful. And physicians calling themselves doctors, though relatively inconsequential, still annoys the crap out of Me.