Amazon won’t stop sending tortured woman unwanted boxes of shoes

fne8w2ah@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 326 points –
Amazon won’t stop sending tortured woman unwanted boxes of shoes
arstechnica.com
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This is really messed up, and I sympathize with her situation, but this is not torture. Words matter. I’d call this harassment, fraud, or malicious company behavior, but not torture. Doesn’t mean it’s right, and the company/seller should absolutely be held responsible.

I looked at it again and it reads “tortured“ woman. I think this is an older usage that most people now aren’t used to seeing. What this means is tortured, is not ‘being tortured’, it’s used as an adjective not a verb. So what I remember from a long time ago was the phrase “she/he had a tortured look on their face”. It doesn’t mean literal torture in the Abu Ghraib sense. BUT, I’m still gonna go with: click bait!

It's hyperbole. You've never been very hungry and said "I'm starving" or been out in very hot weather for a while and said "I'm dying out here"? I'm pretty sure the average reader is able to figure out from context she has not actually been abducted to a black site and waterboarded.

Hyperbole is fine in small talk with coworkers, hyperbole in "news" headlines is annoying ass clickbait.

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