"Nu-Cue-Lar" -- what does it mean?

[Duer 157099]

It boils my blood whenever I hear this mispronunciation. But it occurred to me what it means when Bush does it: it's a symbol of willful ignorance, of stubborn refusal to pay any attention to reality.

Is there any other explanation for such a blatant error?

Why don't people correct him? Surely there are educated people who can't stand hearing it either!!

There's not even any basis whatsoever for this being a "regional" thing, or some sort of accent or anything like that!

How does the spelling NU-CLE-AR morph into NU-CUE-LAR???

It'd be like biology teachers telling students that the nu-cue-lus was the part of the cell where the DNA is. How long would a biology professor (I mean a real one, not the newly minted intelligent design ones) last at a university if he were teaching his students that?

Where does this willful ignorance come from??? I hate it, it's so indicative of many things about our country today.

I say if a person cannot pronounce this word correctly, they forfeit any right to hold a public office at any level.

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. It all stems from the phonetic spelling on his speech sheets

It's the only way he can read, and even then he gets it wrong :rofl:

[mitchtv]

2. If they can't say it, they shouldn't have

their finger on the button IMO, I think Carter talked like that to, it is SOOOOOOOOOO annoying. Catering to rural dumbfucks, I believe. He knows better, but he's the "decider"

[madinmaryland]

9. Carter may have said that word,.

but there was never a book written devoted to "carterism's". He is the opposite of bush when it comes to public speaking.

[Captain Hilts]

13. Carter pronounced it "new-KEY-er". Not "Noo-CUE-ler." nt

[Duer 157099]

16. Are you serious? He thought the "L" was silent?

That's so bizarre. Maybe he thought there were two Ls, nucllear, and it was the Spanish pronunciation, like tortilla?

[Brazenly Liberal]

3. You mean you don't swoon at his folksy charm?

:sarcasm:

That drives me up the wall, too, but I'll tell you what's worse - the people who know better and actually do find it charming. There are more of them than I care to think about.

[Duer 157099]

6. Oh fuck them

it makes me sick beyond belief, there's nothing worse than ignorance, feigned or not, and ESPECIALLY over this particular word!!

Shit, if it were "bananas" or something completely innocuous, maybe I wouldn't care as much, he could wallow in his own filthy puddle of stupidity.

But for crying out loud, *this* particular word has some serious meaning, now more than ever.

Mispronouncing it shows his contempt for science, pure and simple.

[Warpy]

4. It's the military pronunciation, and I also heard it in engineering

school in the south.

It's always been a code to me, that the speaker is either military or southern or both. It's a cultivated barbarism by those groups.

It's not quite as much of a twit giveaway as either "joolery" or "reality" for "jewelry" or "realty."

[Duer 157099]

7. That's just downright scary

Don't want to disrespect the "military" as a whole, but in some ways this doesn't surprise me.

[Vickers]

8. Never heard it pronounced "nucular" in my 8 years

I worked around guys that did the guidance systems for ICBMs, and worked at NORAD/Cheyenne Mountain for a while, where "nuclear" often entered the conversation.

[marmar]

5. "Beautiful Mind" Babs and Papa Shrub never bought Jr....

those Hooked on Phonics tapes. :dunce:

[BrklynLiberal]

10. It means we have a mental midget in the White House.

[newswolf56]

11. It's the GOPorker way of joining hands with illiterates and applauding...

stupidity, ignorance and illiteracy; of spitting in the face of intellectuals (especially scientists); of reveling in the Abrahamic doctrines of "god's chosen" and "might makes right"; of slyly and obliquely displaying the Klever Klan Kostume of bigotry against academics and the French: the schoolyard bully who says "I won't say it right and you can't make me" -- and, yes, it makes me gnash my teeth every time I hear it: the emperor of the world and he can't even pronounce the weapon with which he intends to annihilate us all.

But he isn't feeble-minded -- not by a long shot. He is the most dangerously predatory, viciously sociopathic head-of-state in American history; his Bush-is-a-moron scam is a maliciously clever ploy directly derived from the Christian belief that "the smartest thing the Devil ever did was convince people he doesn't exist" modified accordingly: the smartest thing Bush ever did was convince us he is an idiot.

[Duer 157099]

15. I keep hearing this sentiment about his genius

but I never see even one whit of evidence, never ever ever (I mean, of the words that come out of his mouth).

I have never known a bright person who could hide their intelligence completely and always. It would have to be the devil himself to pull that off. And I'm not sayin' it's not.

[newswolf56]

19. If you reason from the premise that his alleged screwups are deliberate --

that is, that Islamic theocracy in Iraq, ethnic cleansing in New Orleans and genocide via the Medicare Prescription Drug Lord Benefit are all expressions of clandestine policy (which they surely are since they clearly express Big Business intent) -- then the picture instantly becomes terrifyingly clear.

_________
Edit: typo.

[Duer 157099]

21. And I do

I believe he's evil incarnate, but I doubt I'll ever be convinced that he's intelligent.

I believe that this destruction of our country is intentional, and that there are actual intelligent masterminds calling the shots. I will never believe that Bush is that person.

[newswolf56]

23. I often describe him -- correctly I think -- as "capitalism's ultimate...

achievement." I believe you are right there are even more malevolent masterminds behind him, but he was raised from birth to be part of the malevolence: in a particularly grotesque way, an American version of Louis XVI.

[Captain Hilts]

12. Being from a navy family...

the submarine force at that, we were threatened with being slapped if we ever pronounced it like that.

And that was back in the early 70s.

That's the way people who can't read pronounce it. I was amused how MacNeil/Leherer had a right wing shill on about a week ago who insisted pronouncing it that way, when you could tell he knew it sounded stupid.

[Duer 157099]

14. Do the hosts challenge them ever?

I've never ever seen anyone challenged publicly. Why?

[Brazenly Liberal]

17. because it's considered rude.

Don't shoot me - I'm just the messenger on this one. But it's considered rude to correct other people's speech.

And I think most of the time, it is rude and snarky and elitist.

But not in this case. In this case, I'd like to see him called on it. I'd like someone to ask him "Why, fercryinoutloud, is a college graduate so proud of being too ignorant to correctly pronounce one of the scariest words of our time?" and while they're at it, I'd like them to ask "George, really now, I mean seriously, about that accent. Isn't it time to stop faking it? You know, people do notice that Jeb doesn't have one."

[Duer 157099]

24. I completely agree with you on all points

No shooting here

[slingsam]

18. Didn't you hear? He's Prezinit! He has No-Clue either!!!

He can change the pronunciation to anything he feels like....So...he just decreed it henceforth!(See? He just has to declassify the English Language!)

[The2ndWheel]

20. Why do people say "idear"?

Is Howard Dean an educated doctor?

[Duer 157099]

22. That bugs me too, but not nearly as much

[sweetpotato]

25. my pronunciation pet peeve is

"Anes-TEE-sia" for anesthesia.

Its not spelled that way and my dictionery says its not pronounced that way. I hear it more and more.

[meow2u3]

26. Nu-cue-lar is a common Southern mispronunciation for nuclear

Jimmy Carter mispronounces 'nuclear' the same way.

[Duer 157099]

27. Then my opinion extends to all of them, too

[DesertRat]

31. Bush spent most of his youth in the Northeast n/t

[formercia]

28. A synonym:

Nuke-U-Liar

[Duer 157099]

29. Good one

maybe he thinks

nukular = popular

[DesertRat]

30. Dyslexia maybe?

He's been told and won't (or can't) change. :shrug:

[Duer 157099]

32. won't is more likely

[orleans]

33. it didn't morph into what you said

it morphed into NEW--CUE--LER

and that's how it did it...sounded too much alike for simple minds to grasp