by Matt Barr

What is it? I'm stupid

I don't think any phrase in entirely too common usage irritates me more than "it's the _____, stupid."

It began 14 years ago as a prod to keep Clinton campaign staffers from losing focus on the fact the economy, which filled in the blank then, was what voters cared about in the 1992 election. If it's condescending beyond its merit (if you have to be constantly reminded what's most important, how self-evident is it, really?) and needlessly coarse, it was supposed to be jarring and intrusive on your consciousness -- a way to inspire people of common cause to success, as much as a reminder of something they forgot at their peril.

Now it's just a lazy phrase used by lazy writers. ALL THE TIME. Not only to remind readers of something they shouldn't forget. Usually, writers are avoiding the work of convincing you they're right and skipping straight to their conclusion. "As you can see, you reader-moron, everybody knows this by now but you, for I have spaketh and said all that needs be said. Eth."

It doesn't always describe something that should be apparent to readers, usually because the writer hasn't made it apparent, but just as often because the reader doesn't care. Another problem you can blame on the writer, not the reader.

Sometimes, the writer starts off with his or her "stupid" phrase, a cheap attention grabber. This certainly ropes me in and makes me want to hear what they have to say, don't know about you. Then again, couldn't this backfire? If your headline or lead sums up your whole "argument" and lets me know I'm an idiot for not knowing it already, why should I keep reading? If the phrase has its intended effect, I can skip the rest.

Often, the "stupid" phrase means the writer doesn't really have anything else to say about the subject. How that becomes an excuse to insult me, I don't know.

You find it hard to believe I care about being called stupid by people I neither know nor care to? Well, that gets to the real point. It's an ineffective device because it's lazy, and contemptuous enough to repel readers, but also because the writers who use it lack the familiarity with their readers members of a campaign staff would have with one another, or I would have with people I actually knew and liked.

I can call some friends and co-workers "dummy" in a way that is both effective and not insulting, but I really can't get away with it with the mail lady. I might tell a buddy or familiar acquaintence to "bite me," but if I did it to the guy in the hardware store I've never seen before, I would expect it not to be as cheerfully received. I don't know you, "stupid" writer. What did you call me?

I enlisted the help of Nexis to illustrate the extent of the problem. I had to stop after a month's worth because my head hurt. Dates herein are as described in Nexis, which sometimes will be different than original publication date. These writers or editors (in the case of headlines) should all be made to write "it's the exposition, dumbass" (or "moron" or "idiot" or whatever else will remind them calling their readers "stupid" isn't cute, clever or helpful) 500 times on Bart Simpson's blackboard:

• It's The Customer, Stupid: Business Week online has tips for (highly intelligent, I'm sure) telecom providers that want to stand out, May 11
• It's the Cover, Stupid: session about cover design and content ("before we begin, in case you don't realize what we're going to be talking about in this session you selected and signed up for...") at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) 29th annual convention, program announced May 10
• It's the contempt, stupid: Caitlin Flanagan's probably unintentionally ironic explanation for the Democratic party's losing the housewife vote, Time, May 8 edition
• It's the steroids, stupid: To the gratitude of all six people on the planet earth who aren't familiar with the Barry Bonds-steroids saga from the last year and a half or more, Mike Lupica helpfully explains Bonds' image problem, N.Y. Daily News, May 7
• It's the students, stupid: Framed sign above the desk of Stuart Silverman, who reads the names of graduates of University of South Florida at its commencement ceremony each spring and evidently needs to be reminded who he's talking about, profiled in the St. Petersburg Times May 6
• It's the title, stupid: Amy Biancolli previews Snakes On a Plane, a movie neither she nor anyone else has seen, so this about shoots her wad, I guess, Houston Chronicle, May 4
• It's the CAPEX, stupid: Proclaimed by Cody Willard in RealMoney as the reason Google can't rally its stock price, May 2
• It's the product, stupid: Advertising Age announces a tectonic shift in corporate thinking in America, May 1
• It's the playoffs, stupid: The Calgary Herald, whose readers almost surely needed no reminder of what part of the hockey season it was, explains why the Flames' Andrew Ference was playing so well on April 29
• It's the party, stupid: Tory leader David Cameron's problem as described by The Economist, for whom this seems to be a recurring theme (see below), April 29 edition
• It's the Geography, Stupid: A conspicuously succinct headline to a 2,100 word National Journal cover story explaining the strategy Democrats must rely on to retake power, April 29
• It's the high price of petrol, stupid: The Weekend Australian, possibly missing some other things, explains President Bush's problem, April 29
• It's the Ecosystem, Stupid: Business Week online, another double dipper, cautions that good design isn't simply about the product, whatever the hell that means, April 24
• It's the border, stupid: Salena Zito sums up the pro-security side of the immigration debate -- presumably, the pro-immigration side thinks it's the Mexican-American threshold, or something -- Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, April 23
• It's the links, stupid: The Economist sums up blogging in a way Glenn Reynolds can't have been happy with, not because he disagrees, surely, but because it doesn't exactly describe The Dawn of a New Era, April 22 edition
• It's the majority, stupid: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's silently intoned mantra -- no, that's what they call it -- as reported in the Toronto Star, April 21
• It's the drugs, stupid: Parenthetically, why gay London clubbers have so much energy, reported in Time Out, April 19
• It's the Middle East, stupid: Derek Thompson argues... about alternative energy (really, you read it and summarize it in a sentence) in Northwestern University's student daily, April 18
• It's the turnip, stupid: Carol Herman reviews Joe Klein's new book, Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized By People Who Think You're Stupid (like Carol Herman and/or her editor?), Washington Times, April 16
• It's the music, stupid: Why you should go see Oklahoma!, Donald Muro in the Fresno Bee reports (duhh.... I'm there!), April 14
• It's the water, stupid: The key to two architects' redevelopment plans for Chicago's Navy Pier is described in the Chicago Tribune -- at least the architects themselves aren't talking down to me -- April 13

Let's add, to its being lazy, off-putting and overly familiar, that this "stupid" device is way, way overused. And old! 1992! It has to stop.

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