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Combined display of all available logs of Postmodern Dictionary. You can narrow down the view by selecting a log type, the username (case-sensitive), or the affected page (also case-sensitive).

• 01:55, 6 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Racist (Created page with "Someone who disagrees with the social or political innovations of ethnic minority life mandated by the progressive movement. This definition supersedes that of Merriam-Webster, which is "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race." The main problems with this definition are: (1) it levies two determinative requirements where one would suffice, (2) it uses t...")
• 01:54, 6 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Progressivism (Created page with "Progressivism denotes the political philosophy that leads to human progress. It is forbidden to question what this means or to ask for a coherent list of principles that characterizes it. (You can ask for a list of such principles. You just can't demand that they be self-consistent.) Progressives will insist on the moral purity of their historical genesis, emphasizing the role played by classic muckrakers, like Lincoln Stephens, Ida Tarbell or Upton Sinclair, political...")
• 23:09, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Pro-life (Created page with "One of those elusive terms that is claimed by almost everybody. Consider the following opposition positions: Conservative "pro-life": Finding important - possibly even essential, inherent or sacred (as in blessed by God) - value in innocent human life, in particular the life of an unborn or recently born child. Progressive "pro-life": Finding important - as in supported, desired or sacred (as in blessed by Government) - value in any human life, at any age. In particula...")
• 23:06, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Presentism (Created page with "Judging the past by the standards of the present. ''Wikipedia'' has two articles on "presentism". The term here refers to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis)| Presentism - literary and historical analysis] Bill Maher commented on this in a "Real Time" episode... <center><youtube>schuzjknjYE</youtube></center>")
• 23:05, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Postmodern Fable 3 (Created page with "'''Biblical Prolog (''Luke 10:30-34'')''' A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, an...")
• 23:02, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Postmodern Fable 2 (Created page with "'''Biblical Prolog (Genesis 11:1-4)''' Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scatte...")
• 22:58, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Postmodern Fable 1 (Created page with "In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel out on campaign; and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbat. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And on...")
• 22:57, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Post-structuralism (Created page with "So, what do you do if you flunked philosophy and science? If you have a political/ideological bent, and perhaps a flair for glib phrases, you invent "post-structuralism", a substitute for hard knowledge which excuses its ignorance with claims that "no one really understands anything anyway, because they just can't, that's why." If you find the work of Derrida, Foucault, et. al., too difficult to endure because of its imprecision, you might take refuge in the work of Wit...")
• 22:56, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Polysemantic (Created page with "Having multiple meanings. This is one of the more obscure words in the English language. This is the adjective form. The noun form, polysemant, is even more obscure. Examples of polysemantic words include the following * Liberal * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism Neoliberal] * Conservative * Progressive * Tolerance * Homophobic * Xenophobic * Pro-Life * Freedom * [https://en.wi...")
• 22:54, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Political Correctness (Created page with "Political correctness is a term used generally by skeptics who stand at least partly aloof from post-modern progressivism. True believers regard the term as hostile and its usage politically incorrect. Since if you are reading this you probably have personal experience giving or receiving a charge of political incorrectness, I see no further need to elaborate.")
• 22:54, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Plutocracy (Created page with "Rule by the class of people who have the most possessions.")
• 22:53, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page POE (Created page with "There are surely many other possible acronyms and many possible names for the Party of Empire. That we should end up with an acronym like POE is perhaps coincidental. We could not reasonably call its platform poetic, though we might consider its ideological underpinnings manifestly macabre. In truth, it is not clear that it has an official structure, like most parties do, but may exist purely as an abstraction of important phenomena or as an hypothesis advanced in an at...")
• 22:51, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page PAC Man (Created page with "If you happen to be a geek, or know one well, you may know that the Japanese company, Namco, created one of the first arcade games, known as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man Pac-Man]. Arcade games, once transitioned into an electronic digital media environment, were the first video games. Pac-Man was a rudimentary eating-head (as opposed to "head-eating") icon. It preceded the talking heads idea (which was pioneered by the Sci-Fi character known as [https://en.wiki...")
• 22:50, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Oligarchy (Created page with "Rule by a small group of people who agree with each other that no one else should have power.")
• 22:49, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Obamoncology (Created page with "Obamoncology is the sub-discipline of Oncology devoted to excising the cancer of capitalism from society. In a brilliant alliance between Mr. Glibb and Dr. Prepper, the American economy has been brought under sedation through the application of local anesthetics applied to various and sundry economic organs. The subject is not yet comatose, but is already largely unaware of what is happening. Some of those organs have been removed, and replaced by government agencies. t...")
• 22:47, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Nomocracy (Created page with "The standard definition of Nomocracy is "government by the rule of law or a legal code." It should be noted, however, that the interposition of a large bureaucracy interpreting law effectively diminishes the purpose and intent of the rule of law, since the interpretation, if the legal code is overwhelmingly complex (the standard raison d'être for the bureaucracy) the interpretation becomes increasingly arbitrary. On might plot a graph of the relationship between the si...")
• 22:45, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Nominalist (Created page with "A forbidden word. A nominalist, in the antiquated sense, is someone who believes that the laws of nature are figments of a person's imagination. In that sense, they are purely arbitrary. Reality, itself, to the nominalist, has no such laws governing it. The idea of nominalism arose when philosophers noticed that not all humans (or dogs, or cats or horses) are exactly alike, and that it is deucedly difficult to define precisely what a human being is, so they stopped tryi...")
• 22:43, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Newspeak (Created page with "Newspeak is an archaic term, invented by George Orwell, to prophesy our post-modern linguistic usage, whose fundamental purpose is to control the social and political narrative. One may view the purposes and, to some extent, the form of Newspeak as a likely endpoint for post-modern language. By the time this endpoint is reached, of course, society will be in a process of economic implosion and ultimately degenerate into social chaos. Orwell was not a social economist and...")
• 22:42, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Mother (Created page with "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the term "mother" meant something. Or so the story goes. Few people, today, are sure what that meaning may have been. There is a rumor that an endangered species of humans, called Christians, have a concept of "mother" that is connected in some mysterious way with another concept they call "Church." When the curator of the World Museum of Natural History was queried as to what this might be, however, its response was "I dunno....")
• 22:41, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Moral Relativism (Created page with "A forbidden term. In the antiquated sense, moral relativism is the belief that morality is in the eye of the beholder. This makes it a tad difficult to explain why it is immoral to impose one's morality on someone else. It also makes it a tad inconvenient for governments (or, more generally, social elites), which are in the business of imposing some morality on everyone, or different moralities on different constituencies, whichever is more politically convenient or nec...")
• 22:40, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Monarchy (Created page with "A monarchy is a government led by a monarch (usually a king or a queen). Monarchies vary according to the degree to which tradition or constitution exert a limitation on the power of the monarch, and whether there are or are not other governmental bodies representing specific civil groups, such as nobility, clergy, intelligentsia, the military class or common people. The actual title of the monarch may vary, as well, with some monarchies ruled by tsars or Caesars, some b...")
• 22:40, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Misogynist (Created page with "Someone who fails to promote the social innovations of female life mandated by the progressive movement. This definition supersedes that of Merriam-Webster, which is "one who hates women." This definition is too specific and too difficult to apply in most political contexts. In particular, it is too closely connected to its Greek roots. The new definition can be applied at will in new circumstances, as defined by the progressive leadership.")
• 22:38, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Minor Attracted Persons (Created page with "A nicer sounding term that replaces "pedophile".")
• 22:37, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Marriage (Created page with "Although there are a variety of classical definitions of marriage, depending upon the seriousness with which the union is regarded (for example, some consider it to be a contract, while others consider it to be a covenant), there is no clear-cut definition of marriage, nor even an irreducible common denominator, acceptable to all the disparate elements of the post-modern coalition. Sorry about that.")
• 22:36, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Manel (Created page with "An all-male panel at an academic conference or colloquium, or on a TV quiz, news or talk show, or any other public venue where women are known to have an opinion but are conspicuously absent from a featured panel discussion. See [https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/manel Manel]. Not to be confused with the Indie-pop band of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manel ''Wikipedia'']. Not to be confused with the Catalan form of the name [https://en.wiktio...")
• 22:34, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Libertarian (Created page with "Libertarians, in the intent of the word (if there is such a thing) are people who believe that the power of government should be minimized in order to maximize human freedom. In other words, today's libertarians used to be called liberals years ago, before liberals discovered that the benefits of big government outweigh the disadvantages. Some people are confused by the meaning of the word "libertarian" because so many libertines who want the power of government to...")
• 22:32, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Liberal (Created page with "The term "liberal" means different things to different people. Some folks who are classical progressives (i.e., in the mold of Margaret Sanger, as Hillary Clinton once described herself) and who might prefer not to emphasize their belief in eugenics might call themselves "liberal". Just as a libertine might call him or her self "libertarian" (perhaps not knowing the meaning of the term), a classical progressive might call him or her self "liberal". ''Wikipedia'' (still...")
• 22:31, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Let's go Brandon (Created page with "Wikipedia has a fairly accurate summary of the inception and use of the expression "Let's go Brandon". For an amusing example of the use of "Let's go Brandon", see [https://fb.watch/9O8uisTevy/ Mike Rowe's Facebook post].")
• 22:30, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Legal Realism (Created page with "The preferred term for "legal instrumentalism," which is forbidden to be used. Legal realism is the philosophy that the law, and, more specifically, its interpretation, must serve (i.e., be instrumental to the cause of) human progress. As such, it is thought to be malleable in an organic sense, provided it is reposed in capable hands. In that sense, it doesn't actually matter what the incipient principles of a legal framework are, as long as they can be properly shaped...")
• 22:28, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Left-Wing (Created page with "See Right-Wing")
• 22:27, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Language Games (Created page with "The idea of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language-game language games], in the abstract, originated from early 20th century philosopher [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein Ludwig Wittgenstein]. He presented a model of human discourse within a given culture (understood in the broadest sense), noting that some players have more influence on the use and development of a language than others. As such, he regarded them as competent game players. From his pers...")
• 22:26, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Kleptocracy (Created page with "Government by kleptomaniacs who operate on a broad scale.")
• 22:25, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Kakistocracy (Created page with "Rule by the morally and intellectually clueless. Kakistocracy is the preferred method of government of most of the world's nations and multinational-collectives.")
• 22:23, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Kafkaesque (Created page with "Any legislative or socially, economically, educationally or journalistically prescriptive scheme that is dissonant with respect to the progressive movement's latest programs. This definition is admittedly provisional, since it cannot be assured of covering all the important criteria of the moment. Nevertheless, it supersedes the definition in Merriam-Webster, which is "of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings; especially : having a nightmarishly com...")
• 22:22, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Judeo-Christian (Created page with "If you really don't know what this term refers to, I can recommend the article on Wikipedia: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judeo-Christian Judeo-Christian]. If you already have a sense of what this term means, you may also be aware of the drift in public discourse toward substitution of the term [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religions Abrahamic] for Judeo-Christian. Let's face it, the lowest common denominator between the various branches of Judaism and...")
• 22:20, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs deleted page Catholic Expert (content was: "A Catholic expert is anyone with credentials from a recognized Catholic institution of higher learning who happens to agree with the journalist who has consulted him or her on a topic of current interest. The most prized Catholic expert is a Jesuit priest or an erudite-sounding nun with a long list of degrees.", and the only contributor was "Root" (talk))
• 22:19, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Catholic expert (Created page with "A Catholic expert is anyone with credentials from a recognized Catholic institution of higher learning who happens to agree with the journalist who has consulted him or her on a topic of current interest. The most prized Catholic expert is a Jesuit priest or an erudite-sounding nun with a long list of degrees.")
• 22:17, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Jesuit (Created page with "The term Jesuit used to signify a member of the order of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Jesus Society of Jesus], as founded by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_of_Loyola St. Ignatius of Loyola]. Today, although many Jesuits' Catholic identity may appropriately be considered in doubt, Jesuit priests of the post-modern progressive mold are in the front of many journalistic rolodexes (and their PDA/smartphone counterparts) as "Catholic experts." In...")
• 22:16, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Isonomia (Created page with "Wikipedia has a fine trace of the usage of the term isonomia. In essence, isonomy, or [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isonomia isonomia], means "equality before the law", or, to use a traditional term "equal justice." This is a term that is not readily found in common usage, even though there are a number of crude approximations of the meaning in common postmodern usage. These approximations tend to be confused with notions of economic, social and political equality, amon...")
• 22:14, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Islamophobia (Created page with "The word Islamophobia, in spite of its etymological pedigree (which is very thin compared to that for homophobia), broadly denotes any failure of total, evangelically supportive approval of what would classically be referred to as a [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia Sharia] lifestyle. In political or social discourse, use of the term tends to be most effective when the user genuinely (or, at any rate, convincingly) feels aggrieved or morally outraged because of som...")
• 22:13, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Intersectionality (Created page with "The application of Venn Diagram logic to Identity Politics. According to the theory, the more subgroups of oppressed people one belongs to or identifies with, the more points scored in the great battle for compassion, recognition, votes, political favors, etc., as long as one does not espouse conservative principles.")
• 22:09, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Independent (Created page with "The term Independent (with a capital "I") refers to a question of party affiliation, not, as some suppose, a question of emotional or intellectual independence. Indeed, many, if not most, members of the grouping known as "Independent" are anything but independent thinkers. Since it's sexy to say "I'm an Independent," lot's of people who normally vote Democratic call themselves Independent. These people are actually "liberals," but the term "liberal" isn't sexy....")
• 22:07, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Identity Politics (Created page with "A paradoxical approach to forming coalitions in a political party or movement. The basic idea is that many people belong to or identify with a particular minority group that has suffered injustice or even oppression in the past, and that all such people can benefit by combining into a powerful political coalition. The difficulty naturally arises, however, that people who see themselves as victims tend to regard other people with jealousy. As long as everyone can agree o...")
• 22:06, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Husband (Created page with "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_and_Steve Adam and Steve] got married. As bridesmaids, they chose Bob and Ted. The groomsmen were Carol and Alice. When it was all over, Adam and Steve flipped each other to see who would be declared the husband and who the wife so that there would be no confusion when one or the other passed away and the survivor began to collect benefits.")
• 22:04, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Human Rights (Created page with "According to the old definition, human rights are endowed by God to his human creations as a consequence of his human creations sharing in his image and likeness. It entailed the rights of acting in conformity with one's conscience and pursuing such goods as happiness/good fortune and eternal salvation, whatever THAT means! This definition is clearly outdated, however, since not all human cultures sprang from the traditions of the Hebrew scriptures (in particular, the T...")
• 22:03, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Hinge of History (Created page with "An alternate, and academically updated name for the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius. It expresses the idea that inexorable changes in demographics and education guarantee that every progressive cause célèbre will soon triumph in the public square. Of course, that assumes that the collapse of civilization doesn't happen first.")
• 22:02, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Homophobia (Created page with "The word homophobia, in spite of its etymological pedigree, broadly denotes any failure of total, evangelically supportive approval of what would classically be referred to as an unchaste lifestyle. In political or social discourse, use of the term tends to be most effective when the user genuinely (or, at any rate, convincingly) feels aggrieved or morally outraged because of some real or imagined slight. There is no requirement that the object of the homophobia epithet...")
• 22:01, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Heterosexism (Created page with "Heterosexism is the corollary face of the term homophobia. In its widest application, heterosexism is the mindset imputed to anyone who regards heterosexuality as in any sense normative for human populations. More specifically, heterosexism is ascribed to anyone who prefers adopting couples to be heterosexual or regards homosexuals, as such, as inappropriate role models, or the homosexual lifestyle as an inappropriate path for generic character building. Heterosexis...")
• 21:59, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Hermeneutic of Suspicion (Created page with "In reviewing this definition, I realized I needed to express it in terms that postmodern people could understand. So, here goes... The hermeneutics of suspicion is the perspective that today's woke people have toward the scriptures and towards other foundational elements of pre-postmodern society. Okay, now that I've said that, I can perhaps explain what it is to people who are not yet woke. The expression ''hermeneutics of suspicion'' can be traced to [https://en.m.w...")
• 21:58, 5 March 2023 Root talk contribs created page Grift (Created page with "Grift is actually an old (in postmodern terms) word. It's usage, however, has reemerged in the past few years and is now quite popular. It is used as a noun (and, in that case, equates to "graft") or a verb. In the latter case, according to Dictionary.com, it can be used as a transitive or as an intransitive verb. Wiktionary classifies it as a slang term. I have yet to see it used as a transitive verb.")