Listen

[prog]

[NOOK-yoo-lur] is a perfectly fine way to pronounce the word. It is a legitimate variant and in fact how I learned to say it, growing up. If you think that getting snarky over this is the way to fight a culture war, then you personify everything that's wrong with this side. Shape up and focus

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It's more than a trivial mis-use of the language

[grr-plus1.livejournal.com]

Bush has the power and authority to destroy the world using "nukular" bombs.

Any normal person given that level of responsibility might be bothered to learn how to pronounce nuclear. It's somewhat analogous to the doctor who holds your life in his hands saying "Nurse, pass me that cutty thing there." Because it's a life or death issue it's no longer cute.

That said, I've been less annoyed by GW's use of "nukular". It was much worse when Reagon used it, smack in the middle of the cold war at the same time as his administration refused to rule out making a first strike against the USSR. I've never been seriously worried that GW was going to start nuclear WWIII- although, who knows, maybe he's wacky enough to think it's his responsibility to bring on the End Times with nukes.