I used the term “Charlie Foxtrot” in semi-polite company the other day (the office, where I try to keep the outraged swearing to a minimum, or at least to save it up for when it’s really needed) and found several people who weren’t aware of the term.
For the record, in semi-polite company it’s difficult to explain without using the terms you were trying to avoid using. “Just Google it” works fine in the end.
For those of you who might be in the dark, “Charlie” is the letter “C” in the military phonetic alphabet, while “Foxtrot” is the letter “F.” You know – alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo, foxtrot, golf, hotel, india…
The “C” in the term “Charlie Foxtrot” stands for “cluster.” It should come as no surprise to absolutely anyone that the “F” stands for “fuck.”
A “cluster fuck” is a graphic but generally accurate term for any situation in which EVERYTHING is going wrong and EVERYONE is to blame. It’s in a dimension of its own, so far above a simple, single fuck up by an individual or small group that it just had to have its own term to roll off the tongue.
“What a cluster fuck!” has been heard in many a military scenario.
And now, whole generations of Americans who had gotten comfy in semi-polite company are going to have to learn that term and how to deliver it in all of its graphic intensity and anger. Because it’s a perfect way to describe every single bit of the Trump Administration since Day One.
Even worse, we may soon be grateful to only be describing the Trump Administration as a total cluster fuck. It’s still a better term than “dictatorship” or “totalitarian regime.”
Let’s hope we never have to look back fondly on the days when the United States government was only a massive cluster fuck.
Paulietics 