Following on my mini-rant against the sub-literate use of the word “liberal” (Liberals? Not) to refer to reactionary pseudo-communist/socialist tyrannical statist control freaks, here is a short list of terms that should be avoided, or used only with great care, by any rational person:
conservative–when used by or to refer to any reactionary pseudo-communist/socialist tyrannical statist control freak who does not actively practice the ethos of “the government that governs least, governs best” by seeking to reduce the scope and power of government, reduce the enormous burdens of taxation upon citizens, guard our borders, our rights (including our property rights), etc. IOW, about 99% of the current crop of lying, self-styled “conservative” politicians–aren’t. Don’t call such folks “conservatives”; call ’em liars.
gay–when used to refer to angry, neurotic, deeply troubled homosexual self-styled “victims”. Use the word to refer to happy, carefree people, instead.
black–when used to refer to a person (unless you are talking about a black-hearted villain of some sort). I have yet to meet ANY so-called “black” person who is black, even guys from Nigeria I knew in college.
Afro-American–another B.S. term. Also, ban any other hyphenated-American term. What? Am I a hyphenated-American because a couple of hundred years ago my ancestors came from elsewhere? By that measure, Eskimos, Cree, Sioux and all the other so-called “native Americans” ought to be called “Asian-Americans” cos that’s where they came from. We’re either Americans or something else entirely.
Update: I thought it good to include the following from a comment made by Theodore Roosevelt in 1915:
“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. … The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans… There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.”
green–used to refer to eco-prop (ecological propagandist), an eco-propagandist or a supposedly “eco-friendly” technology. It’s become either a nearly meaningless shiboleth for leftist goons to use to ostracize people who simply want to live civilized existences or else a stupid-happy brainwashing tool. Use “green” to refer to the color, OK?
global warming–the proper term is “anthropogenic global warming hogwash”. Get it right, folks.
climate change–when used as an escape for AGW loonies, liars, fellow travelers and useful idiots who are confronted with inescapable proof that their AGW hypothesis is hogwash. When used in the context of, “Climate change? Sure, that’s the nature of climate; it changes all the time, whether we do anything about it or not,” it’s a perfectly good term. Just be careful how you use it, or you may be (justly) lumped in with the AGW loonies, liars, fellow travelers and useful idiots who use it improperly.
There, that’s a short list. Add to it in comments.
Trackposted to Nuke Gingrich, Woman Honor Thyself, McCain Blogs, Right Truth, Adam’s Blog, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, The Amboy Times, Cao’s Blog, , Rant It Up, The Yankee Sailor, and D equals S, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
dang I dint get the trackback to this!..lol..but here goes:
Bigot – used to describe anyone who refuses to view all lifestyles, religions, cultures and..ahem..(Can u say shaaaaariah?) deviances as equally valid.
pfffttt! 🙂
shux..found u in the spam filter , where u apparently enjoy hangin out!..heh..ty for the link !:)
Angel,
*heh*
Actually, I just posted it four minutes before you saw and commented (I just noticed that WP’s timeclock is off and I need to correct it), so the tb’s probably waiting in your moderation queue.
Yeh, “bigot” is another one. How about “racist” when used to refer to someone who prefers that any immigration to our country be done legally? (I really hate to tell the folks who use it that way that “Mexican” isn’t a race. Nah, I don’t hate telling ’em that. *heh*)
What are you saying? You mean we can’t call John McCain a conservative? But… he’s a Republican… he must be a conservative… at least a maverick conservative. Why even the New York Times loves him, or will until July. 🙂
Yes, Perri, that’s exactly what I’m saying. And the proof of the pudding is in your last sentence. *heh*
Other words/phrases to avoid using (because as used in common parlance, they have lost their meaning or their meaning has been inverted):
Democratic Party: do I even have to list the long litany of UNdemocratic behavior of this falsely-named political group? Call them the Dhimmicrappic Party if you wish.
Republican Party: are there any (ANY!) politicians in this group who still have any even vaguely fond memories of the Founders’ republic? How about calling this group the Repugnican’ts?
And together, the Dhimmicrappic and Repugnican’t wings of the Uniparty continue to tear at the flailing, fading body of the Constituion and what little is left of the republic bequeathed us by earlier generations as they work, each in their own ways, to drive the U.S. over the precipice into the ashheap of history.
You left off “tax refund” as in this latest wealth redistribution program to help the economy by giving $300 to everyone regardless of whether or not they even paid taxes.
Oh, yes, TF. The list can be much, much longer. “Tax refund” to people who haven’t paid any. An excellent example of words that mean nothing on even a close order of their common meaning..
Organic – Used to identify foodstuffs grown without technological help, such as pesticides and fertilizer. The correct usage is as in organic chemistry… “carbon based”. Everything else is “inorganic”.
Perri,
re: “organic” used improperly to refer to foods grown w/o artificial chemical aids, yeh. My Wonder Woman’s heard that one from me for 30 years… *heh* (One class in organic chem would do the trick for anyone who can tie their own shoes while doing differentials in their head. *heh*)
Keep ’em coming.