Going postal 📤😡
Meaning
To become uncontrollably angry, often to the point of violence.
Origin
The phrase "going postal" exploded into the public consciousness in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It emerged from a series of tragic incidents where United States Postal Service employees, driven to an extreme breaking point by workplace stress and a hostile environment, committed acts of unspeakable violence against their colleagues. These horrifying events, widely reported in the media, seared the image of a mail carrier erupting in a deadly rage into the American psyche, giving birth to this potent, albeit grim, idiom.
Going postal represented with emoji📤😡
This playful arrangement of 📤😡 functions as a whimsical, yet potent, visual pun. It teaches the viewer to unpack the layers of meaning within simple icons, drawing a parallel between the unassuming emoji and the explosive phrase, 'going postal.' Note how the familiar symbols coalesce to evoke a sense of sudden, overwhelming rage, inviting us to consider the shorthand language of our digital age.
Examples
- After his computer crashed for the third time, he started going postal.
- She was so frustrated with the customer service representative that she almost went postal.
- The grumpy badger, denied his favorite berries, was on the verge of going postal.
- When the rain ruined his picnic plans, the squirrel considered going postal on the clouds.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, 'going postal' is a relatively modern idiom, largely popularized in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Its widespread use is directly tied to a series of highly publicized violent incidents within the US Postal Service during that period.
Yes, the phrase 'going postal' is often considered offensive due to its direct and grim association with specific acts of violence and loss of life. It can be seen as trivializing real tragedies that occurred within the postal service.
The opposite of 'going postal' would be remaining calm, composed, or perhaps even finding peaceful resolutions under stress. There isn't one single antonym, but states of emotional regulation and de-escalation contrast with the idiom's meaning.
While the incidents that coined the phrase were tragic and widely reported, studies and analyses since the 1990s have generally not supported the idea that the US Postal Service inherently had higher rates of workplace violence than other comparable large organizations. The phrase likely arose from the notoriety of specific events rather than statistical prevalence.