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Letting Leftists Limit Language
American Thinker ^ | Sept 4, 2010 | Bruce Walker

Posted on 09/04/2010 1:18:28 AM PDT by Rashputin

Make no mistake: Obama, Pelosi, Reid, et al. believe in nothing but power. They are not "socialists." There are no socialists in the world except those in mental institutions or very young children who have never seen modern political debate in action. The façade of socialism has always been the same -- a phony banner for the acquisition of power. Every brutal thug, every Hitler or Stalin wannabe, first champions the masses against the despised few who exploit them. It is almost impossible, in a free society, for anyone to exploit anyone else for very long. But the lust for power must be sated and the fruits of freedom must be slandered and spat upon with invented words.

Words like "capitalism," for example, which is as surreally devoid of real meaning as "Jewish science" or "kulaks" or "homophobes." These words are intended to limit thought, to short-circuit critical reasoning, and to funnel ideas into tight corrals. When we use capitalism, we are presupposing that economic freedom is dictated by capital or by capital and labor. History, of course, tells us that economic freedom leads to an explosion of new ideas, innovation in technique, and scientific development. The relationship between capital and labor, the Holy of Holies to socialists, is dramatically unimportant in the real world. This myth, though, must be repeated so often that even those of us who love freedom accept the myth as, somehow, true.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: conversation; definitions; words
The point about letting leftists define the terms of the debate is a good one, but I disagree with the making up of yet more terms in order to combat them. Just as the left avoids the word 'liberal' these days, they can be forced to drop and avoid other words they're enamored of if we constantly define those words as what they are really applied to rather than as what the left is trying to sell them as. When it comes to what do we call current democrats, fascists is accurate, so that's my term for them, the fascist democrat party. They match historical fascists better than they do socialists so until something better comes along, that's my word for them. Especially since it derails the majority of them to hear 'their' word used against them.
1 posted on 09/04/2010 1:18:31 AM PDT by Rashputin
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To: Rashputin

The Left is not alone in using language to stifle debate and disagreement. The Right does a pretty good job of it, too. Terms like RINO, Bushbot, and similar epithets are thrown around quite freely simply to enforce rigid uniformity of thought. No disagreement, however mild, is tolerated.


2 posted on 09/04/2010 1:41:50 AM PDT by Wolfstar
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To: Wolfstar
More often than not, you need to look under the sheep's clothing of those tossing such terms around. I've found that many, many, of those doing so are either fifth columnists or such purists that they haven't gotten off their butts and actually worked for anything or even voted for a long time. The same people tossing that around were tossing it around when Reagan was in and still slander Reagan to this day when cornered. They don't actually care about changing things, just about playing their own little game and they are not capable of ‘enforcing’ anything unless you let them.

Of course, if you buy into the “they're all the same so we're helpless” line, so be it.

3 posted on 09/04/2010 1:53:47 AM PDT by Rashputin (Obama is already insane and sequestered on golf courses or vacations so you won't know it)
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To: Rashputin

The lefties are big on phobias. First homophobia, now Islamophobia. I think the left is afflicted with phobiaphobia.


4 posted on 09/04/2010 2:04:06 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

They’re big on “isms” too.


5 posted on 09/04/2010 2:51:52 AM PDT by luvbach1 (Stop Barry now. He can't help himself.)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

Don’t forget their hoplophobia...


6 posted on 09/04/2010 3:05:26 AM PDT by donmeaker ("Get off my lawn." Clint Eastwood, Green Ford Torino)
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To: aflaak

Ping


7 posted on 09/04/2010 9:35:06 AM PDT by r-q-tek86 ("It doesn't matter how smart you are if you don't stop and think" - Dr. Sowell)
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