Shades of George Orwell's 1984 - back in 2008, General Motors published a list of 69 words that should never appear in print.
From the Wall Street Journal
The 69 Words You Can’t Use at GM
As the WSJ reports today, GM will be fined $35 million — the maximum possible — and admit to breaking auto-safety laws, as part of a settlement with the U.S. government over its bungled recall of millions of cars with faulty ignition switches.
In documents released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as part of the settlement, we get a colorful look into GM’s internal workings. The documents include a company presentation from 2008 explaining aspects of the recall process to engineers, including how to document faults and engineering issues.
The list is on page 60 of this 67 page PDF report. Here is a small screen-cap:
And here's the list of all 69:
always, annihilate, apocalyptic, asphyxiating, bad, Band-Aid, big time, brakes like an “X” car, cataclysmic, catastrophic, Challenger, chaotic, Cobain, condemns, Corvair-like, crippling, critical, dangerous, deathtrap, debilitating, decapitating, defect, defective, detonate, disemboweling, enfeebling, evil, eviscerated, explode, failed, flawed, genocide, ghastly, grenadelike, grisly, gruesome, Hindenburg, Hobbling, Horrific, impaling, inferno, Kevorkianesque, lacerating, life-threatening, maiming, malicious, mangling, maniacal, mutilating, never, potentially-disfiguring, powder keg, problem, rolling sarcophagus (tomb or coffin), safety, safety related, serious, spontaneous combustion, startling, suffocating, suicidal, terrifying, Titanic, unstable, widow-maker, words or phrases with a biblical connotation, you’re toast
Considering that until recently, We the People owned a good chunk of General Motors and we lost over 10 Billion Dollars on the deal. If GM had been allowed to go through bankruptcy, it would have emerged a leaner stronger company. Now it is just bloat as usual. I still love my Ford pickup truck!
