My LEAST favorite liberal buzzword--and what's yours?

Which word, phrase, or expression makes you cringe when others on DU or other liberal forums use it, despite a similar political perspective?

Mine is Police State.

We get accused of hyperbole a lot from the right, although they themselves are the most skilled at it--especially when it comes to the politics of fear. (Axis of Evil, anyone?) Still, I cringe openly when my fellow liberals use the expression to describe Bush's America--it just proves to me that person has absolutely no perspective of the world at large. I want to say, Jesus, open your eyes--Myanmar is a police state. North Korea is a police state. And in some regions, Iraq is a police state. These are nations where an all-powerful, unchecked central government dispatches security forces to brutally silence opposition and covertly settle political scores. The very fact that someone would apply that expression to events where, say, a single uncooperative student is tasered by university security, or a disruptive protest group in the Capitol building is taken into custody by congressional police--it's not just inaccurate; it shows a complete lack of perspective on history and world politics. And to those who argue the point with me, I would say that the very fact that the student was allowed to pose questions to a sitting government official, or that the protest group was allowed into the Capitol building at all, is proof that our country is not the Third Reich--at least as far as jackbooted thugs coming to squash us is concerned.

Now, of course, there are plenty of things Bush has done to inch us in that direction--Gitmo, for one. Wiretapping, for another. Lately we have risked becoming a police state to the rest of the world, if not to our own citizens. I even remember scenes in Fahrenheit 9/11 where perfectly ordinary liberals, guilty of nothing but being outspoken, were spied upon by various government agencies, and I would say that this point in our country marks the closest we've ever come to outright fascism. But if I remember correctly, no one was spirited away in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. Furthermore, The crucial difference is that the uniformed cops that we see on our streets every day do not take orders from the Ruling Party, and they couldn't care less about the political ideology of Individuals. They care if we park in a yellow zone, or if we're being drunk and disorderly at 3 AM. Or, you could argue, if we're not white. But if I went up to a Brooklyn cop and announced "Down with George Bush! Vice President Cheney is the Devil!" he would probably say "Get the F$%# outta my face, pal--I'm watchin' for jaywalkers here!" He would NOT file a report with his superiors, branding me as a subversive, and I would NOT subsequently have my door kicked down by thugs late at night, come to ship me off to a "re-education center."

If you're watching the news to find out what's going on in Rangoon right now--THAT is a police state. Bush's America may be many awful things, but within our borders, we're not there yet--and hopefully, we never will be.

I vote for the mods locking threads too soon, except when they take forever, if at all!

:-) MKJ

Mine are liberal buzzword :evilgrin:

Isn't trashing liberals a hobby of the DLC not DU? :shrug:

I kinda like people railing and angry about that has been happening. The more people rail, the more others hear it and pay attention to things. That can't be bad.

I don't think the UF kid should have had a taser used on him, but the way people were making him out to be a free speech martyr on this site was ridiculous! He is a whiny spoiled little brat and I'm disappointed in Greg Palast for rewarding his attention-seeking antics with a job. The last straw for me on DU was when a poster compared what happened to him to the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia by the religious police. I'm like, are you fucking kidding me?!?! :wow:

My least favorite buzzword, though not necessarily liberal, is "Political Correctness". Any comment you preface with "I know this isn't 'pc'...." gets to be as nasty and bigoted as you want it to be and you are granted immunity. It's a bullshit meme and I really hate it when fellow progressives evoke it.

Followed closely by "nanny state".

On DU "strawman" and "broad brush" are really overused and becoming annoying.

too much "strawman" used on DU and broadly brushing. We need to call it what it is.

They have genuine meanings, but are too often both used to justify the right to ride roughshod over people.

I also get irritated by the *excessive* use of 'Big Pharma'. I realize that Big Pharma exists, and does some bad things, but it annoys me when *all* modern medicine (to which I owe my life!) is dismissed as nothing but a plot by 'Big Pharma'.

And the use of 'Nazi' for anyone who seems slightly too bossy or interfering. I don't mind so much people calling Bush et al 'Nazis' though I think it's over-the-top; but it really trivalizes the term when it starts being used in such phrases as 'health Nazi', 'smoking Nazi', 'spelling Nazi', 'feminazi', etc.

throw that one out and you might as well put on the love beads and smear patchouli on yourself

Thanks. MKJ

:wtf:

It is unfair to attribute the beliefs and deeds of the neo conservatives to republicans in general, as I have been recently informed. The rabid conservatives that have taken over the republican party have angered many lifelong republicans who are basically decent people. They are not angry enough to go over to the other side yet but maybe they will try to take back their party.

And, support him.

So, um, :shrug: MKJ

I was recently given a lesson in making broad general statements by a registered republican. Many of the local republicans are horrified by what has been done in the name of the GOP. My point is if many of these alienated people were not met with animosity by progressives the possibility exists to have converts rather than people who will vote rep. out of habit or spite. We are supposed to be the reasonable ones here and making blanket statements about large groups of people is a conservative habit that we should not adopt.

pretty recently and now they want the Democratic Congress to rein in the guy they voted for twice.

They were about victory first, country second.

Even when it involved a war of frickin' choice. MKJ

I suggested a more precise group of people to blame for this mess. Blaming the people who believed in the lies and voted for him is like calling them stupid to their face. You may be right but you will not make any friends that way. No one likes to be reminded daily that they were made a fool of. I am not one to hold grudges against groups as much as against individuals.

they'd look to the Democratic Party?

Aren't those of whom you speak much more likely to flock to a Gingrich or Paul?

Why on earth would they want to align with those whom they ridiculed at the height of "Mission Accomplished"?


MKJ

Is the first step towards discrimination. Save your anger for the group of ultra-rich, power-mad people who have manipulated the government and the media to play on the fears of America rather than the courage. Blame the men in the secret board rooms making plans to control everything. Simply blaming all republicans for the policies of the power elite is not the way to encourage a rational kind of social change. It's the same as people blaming all arabs for the actions of their radical terrorist element. It's too broad a term when talking about government wrong doing.

to the mega wealthy.

You call it "demonizing". I call it reality.

The voting R's only now regret what their actions have wrought and are looking to the Dems for a fix, until their party is back in ascendency.

They have the conservative mind set, and there's nothing to change that. And, most are NOT looking for "rational social change", which would be inclusive of gays, minorities, the poor, etc.


MKJ

Huh?

And it's the language progressives use that keeps the republicans from joining us in droves??? :silly:

Where were they for the last seven years??? Certainly not crying fowl loudly while their 'Duh leader' ran amuck!

Give me a break!!

I think so!

They reflect an unwillingness or inability to think critically. I've come to detest the phrase "truth to power" which is now utterly meaningless and thrown about inappropriately with great abandon.

This is not a liberal buzzword or some piece of bullshit propaganda like the phrase, "War on Terror". A "Police State" is a reality that can happen in America if we sit back and do nothing, say, while the judiciary selects the President, and that President uses each and every day in office to chip away at The Constitution. If ONE student being tasered in America is no big deal, then you are the frog sitting in a pot on the stove.

Too many people in the world go through life barely conscious and apathetic. Thank god for people who are alert and ever aware of the early warning signs that our country may not be headed in the right place. America is not as bad as N. Korea or many other countries around the world-now, but you're throwing out strawmen. How about comparing America to America? When I hear old people who've lived through The Great Depression, WWII and the Red Scare saying they've never seen anything like what is happening now under Bush, I listen.

One day you are a democracy, and the next day you are vigorously waving a flag like it was a call to arms, in a country where a mediocre person gets an 80% approval rating, passionately hating a person whose name you can't even pronouce and supporting a pre-emptive strike against a nation who never did you any harm. Does that even sound vaguely familiar? If not, ask the Germans. I'm sure in the 1920's and for much of the 1930's they would have laughed off the idea of their becoming a police state and instead invited you to have a beer. After all, there were countries like Russia and Italy that were much worse off.

nt

actual DU quotes-

Lots more, Just do a basic search.

edited to add box.

Those all drive me nuts.

"Fascist" because people use it to mean just about everything accept fascism. "Authoritarian" because that gets used to cover any kind of expectation of civil behavior. And "police state" for the reasons you mention. Those terms smack of melodrama to me. The reality is bad enough. You don't have to exxagerate it.

Agreed.

This word drives me nuts.

MKJ

Granted it's not a police state now. We all know that. Some use of language is rhetorical.

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." -- Wendell Phillips, (1811-1884)

It's admirable that America is a place where the slightest suggestion of police state tactics brings howls of protest. Good. We won't just sit there and let it happen.

The freepers should be howling too, about these same sorts of things. Instead they seem ready to give it up for illusory safety.

of course I do it jokingly... So would say fascism is one of the words many people throw around without really knowing what it means... Although, communist and and terrorist are other ones I throw out. It of course depends on who I'm talking to. :P


Oh yeah, if you disagree with me then you're communist fascist terrorist.
:P

When the National Guard is called out in the event of riots or a disaster, someone inevitably screeches that martial law has been declared; this even if no declaration of the kind has been issued by governmental authorities.

Martial law means that judges in the civil courts have been replaced by military judges who hand down to civilians decisions that are based in military law. And it isn't necessarily a bad or harsh thing. Martial law was declared in the Hawaiian Islands during World War II. Regulations such as the curfew were strictly enforced. But the fines were sometimes unusual and often beneficial to the greater good. A person convicted of a traffic violation, for example, might be sentenced to donate a pint of blood for the war effort.

When National Guard troops are sent into the streets without a declaration of martial law, they are there at the request of the civil authority to enforce civil law. And that's the difference...

Ever heard of Jose Padilla?





http://www.laweekly.com/news/features/the-list/2637/">The List

especially technology.

That and "sustainable." :P

Only because calling a Republican a "Repuke" is an insult to good, honest, all-natural puke.}(

Most people have little clue about the rest of the world and see it through some bizarre set of rose colored glasses.