User contributions for Root

5 March 2023

• 20:5120:51, 5 March 2023 diff hist +1,533‎ N Dog Whistle ‎ Created page with "According to ''Wikipedia'', [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics Dog-whistle politics] is "political messaging employing coded language that appears to mean one thing to the population of the general public at large while also simultaneously having an additional, different, or more specific resonance for a targeted subgroup." This is, of course, a perfectly legitimate definition, at least on its face. The analogy, of course, is to the original dog whistl..." current
• 20:5020:50, 5 March 2023 diff hist +1,537‎ N Deplorables ‎ Created page with "The official list of categories of individuals subject to censure and/or "cancellation" (last updated on December 7, 2019, the 78th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a more direct historical attempt at cancellation). (See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call-out_culture Call-out culture], Wikipedia's historical review of the current terminology for censure and "cancellation".) Viz... : Racist : Bigot : Homophobe : Misogynist : Transphobe [https://en.wikipedia..." current
• 20:4920:49, 5 March 2023 diff hist +1,425‎ N Demisexual ‎ Created page with "I haven't been able to find a definition of "demisexual" that makes logical sense. The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives a noun definition and an adjective definition. Neither definition is implicit in the component terms "demi" and "sexual" combined. It's as if the people who introduced the term could not find an appropriate component to clarify a distinct type of sexuality. Let's take a look at the details. Here's the noun definition: "a person who feels sexual att..." current
• 20:4520:45, 5 March 2023 diff hist +1,329‎ N Deconstruction ‎ Created page with "Deconstruction referred initially to a modern effort of philosopher Jacques Derrida to dig beneath the paradoxes that often arise in analyzing reality according to such traditional polar opposite concepts as (1) nominalism vs. realism or (2) discrete vs. continuous reality (for an interesting discussion of the current debate among theoretical physicists concerning the nature of ultimate reality, see [http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v307/n6/full/scientifi..." current
• 20:4420:44, 5 March 2023 diff hist +1,513‎ N Crunchy Cons ‎ Created page with "Short for "crunchy" conservative (not how some cannibals regard convicts), the term refers to a new wave of conservatism that is not doctrinaire, can carry on a coherent conversation with just about anyone (of whatever political stripe) who can also carry on a coherent conversation, can tolerate the lives of people whose moral compass differs from their own but who recognize the grave dangers of totalitarianism of any political stripe and the moral and political blindnes..." current
• 20:4220:42, 5 March 2023 diff hist +575‎ N Corruption ‎ Created page with "I have tried to argue here (i.e., on this Wiki) that the corruption of language is a growing problem in our post-modern society. Obviously, there are other forms of corruption. Indeed, one can make the case that the body politic is riddled with disease, and the growing incidence of that disease bespeaks of an Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in the face of diseases in the political, social, governmental and economic realms. Even science, academia, the [https://en.w..." current
• 20:4020:40, 5 March 2023 diff hist +50‎ N Corporatocracy ‎ Created page with "Government by corporations or corporate interests." current
• 20:3920:39, 5 March 2023 diff hist +1,155‎ N Conservatism ‎ Created page with "Conservatism is a reactionary political philosophy that retards or impedes progress, and is liable, if allowed to reign unchecked, to result in the obliteration of all life on planet earth. Even to the typical conservative, the term conservatism tends to be problematic, since people who claim to be conservative do not generally agree on what that means. There is even a major strain of conservative philosophy that insists conservatism is not reducible to a set of princi..." current
• 20:3720:37, 5 March 2023 diff hist +1,179‎ N Compassion ‎ Created page with "Compassion is an emotion experienced by the ant in regards to the plight of the grasshopper. It is an essential component of the curious symbiosis joining these two species. It enables the grasshopper to live in comfort without taxing abilities or virtues it does not possess, and the ant to live a life of toil that is blessedly short. One of the more subtle examples of the balance of nature, it, alas, suffers from certain defects which nature seems powerless to correc..." current
• 20:3520:35, 5 March 2023 diff hist +234‎ N Bureaucracy ‎ Created page with "A professional class of functionaries responsible for the day-to-day operation of government, probably invented by the Chinese philosopher, [http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/Confucius Confucious], but lacking his focus on moral operation." current
• 20:3420:34, 5 March 2023 diff hist +102‎ N Blue State ‎ Created page with "One of the 50 USA states which tends, predominantly, to vote Democrat in state and national elections." current
• 20:3320:33, 5 March 2023 diff hist +273‎ N Blue Pill ‎ Created page with "An expression featured in the movie "The Matrix", used, in the movie, to represent a decision to continue to live life in the Matrix, a programmed virtual reality, or, alternatively (interpreting the metaphor), a decision to reject reality and live in a programmed fantasy." current
• 20:3220:32, 5 March 2023 diff hist +948‎ N Bipartisanship ‎ Created page with "In general, bipartisanship is the art of inviting the opposition party into discussion regarding major legislation, if it should prove to be politically expedient to do so. It may also include listening to the opposition and even in rare cases adopting their suggestions. More specifically, bipartisanship refers to the natural tendency of both parties to trade special favors in order to keep their special constituents happy. The spirit of bipartisanship is most in ev..." current
• 20:3120:31, 5 March 2023 diff hist +658‎ N Bigot ‎ Created page with "A person who disagrees with any part or aspect of the social innovations of the progressive movement. This definition supersedes the Merriam-Webster definition: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance. The problem with the Merriam-Webster definition is that it is politically neutral and, perhaps..." current
• 20:3120:31, 5 March 2023 diff hist +4,565‎ N Big tent party politics ‎ Created page with "Big tent party structure is all about buliding coalitions prior to an election, rather than after. As a result, those political parties that can articulate the most appealing slogans tend to win, however glib or misleading those slogans may be in reality. Parties in such a system do their best to exalt their own slogans while vilifying those of their opposition. Actual principles of life or governance are, in such a system, either minimized or denied in practice, if n..." current
• 20:3020:30, 5 March 2023 diff hist +938‎ N Basket of deplorables ‎ Created page with "Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's characterization of Presidential candidate Donald John Trump's supporters in the 2016 race for the U.S. Presidency. In this basket, Ms. Clinton placed anyone she considered to be "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic – Islamophobic – you name it" (and how's that for a start on a basket of epithets?) in a speech delivered at "an LGBT campaign fundraising event in New York City on September 9", according to ''Wikipe..." current
• 20:2920:29, 5 March 2023 diff hist +684‎ N Autocracy ‎ Created page with "A system of government in which the instruments of government are controlled by a single individual, known variously as a pharaoh, an emperor, a king, an autocrat, a czar (or tsar), a Caesar (from which czar is derived), a premier (not to be confused with a "prime minister"), a first citizen (e.g., Napoleon), a dictator, a führer (German for "leader", suggesting that German titles are remarkably unpretentious, at least on the surface) or party "chairman" (when gover..." current
• 20:2820:28, 5 March 2023 diff hist +4,992‎ N Authority ‎ Created page with "Authority is one of those terms derived from Latin that do not follow the usual rules of such word formation. Composed of "author" plus "-ity", a term based on the Latin "auctōr" with the ending "itās" (see "Origin of authority" in [https://www.dictionary.com/browse/authority authority]). Thus, "-ity" is normally combined with an adjective to form a noun. Dictionary.com gives examples jollity, civility, and Latinity, as derived from "jolly", "civil", and "Latin" (ta..." current
• 20:2720:27, 5 March 2023 diff hist +764‎ N Assault Weapon ‎ Created page with "A rifle that looks like an actual [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_rifle assault rifle], but isn't an assault rifle, for the simple reason that, like most personal weapons, it has a semi-automatic mode of firing but, unlike an actual assault rifle, does not have an automatic mode (sometimes referred to as a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burst_mode_(weapons) burst mode] to distinguish it from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_firearm#Full-automatic_firearm_t..." current
• 20:2520:25, 5 March 2023 diff hist +130‎ N Aristocracy ‎ Created page with "Rule by the high born. Up until the 19th century, this was the preferred method of government for most of Europe and the Americas." current
• 20:2420:24, 5 March 2023 diff hist +373‎ N Alt-Right ‎ Created page with "A so-called "movement" started by a white supremacist named [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_B._Spencer Richard B. Spencer] which has become a sort of terminological dumping ground for a wide variety of so-called right wing positions. Like the philosophy of Mr. Spencer, the "movement" if there actually is one, seems to lack intellectual coherence." current
• 20:2320:23, 5 March 2023 diff hist +1,595‎ N 10 Second Sound Bite ‎ Created page with "10 Second Sound Bite: One of the chief techniques, in the toolkit of postmodern professional journalists, for grabbing the attention of viewers and/or listeners to a broadcast, cable or streaming news program and for providing an opportunity to influence or shape the opinions thereof. (See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_bite sound bite] for further details.) The 10 second sound bite is a technical improvement over the 15 second sound bite. The latter already ena..." current
• 20:2120:21, 5 March 2023 diff hist +1,950‎ N A Free Lunch ‎ Created page with "A Free Lunch: There are two countervailing trends in American culture that define a divide so deep it is probably unbridgeable. There's the part of America that declares [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_ain%27t_no_such_thing_as_a_free_lunch "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch!"], and then there's the part that insists that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_meal#United_States every child in school be provided with a free lunch]. Generation after generation,..." current
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