User contributions for Root

5 March 2023

• 22:0222:02, 5 March 2023 diff hist +1,245‎ N 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..." current
• 22:0122:01, 5 March 2023 diff hist +567‎ N 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..." current
• 21:5921:59, 5 March 2023 diff hist +2,907‎ N 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..." current
• 21:5821:58, 5 March 2023 diff hist +410‎ N 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." current
• 21:5721:57, 5 March 2023 diff hist +418‎ N Grand Old Party ‎ Created page with "The term, "Grand Old Party," or, simply "GOP," is a kind of nickname for the Republican Party. It is intended to express a certain affection, and belief in the age, pedigree and viability of the party. History, it may be said, has yet to rule on the suitability of this expression. Nevertheless, its use is clearly consistent with the general tendency of "grade inflation" within the contemporary, post-modern culture." current
• 21:5521:55, 5 March 2023 diff hist +629‎ N Government ‎ Created page with "A civil institution, tasked (in theory) with representing the interests of the people in establishing good order supporting economic and social interaction. In a society where people cannot agree on what constitutes "good order" or "the interests of the people," the reins of government tend to be dominated by two main interest groups, which can be distinguished according to who they benefit and why. See, for example, Republican and Democrat. See also bureaucrac..." current
• 21:5421:54, 5 March 2023 diff hist +10,258‎ N Good ‎ Created page with "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the term "good" had something to do with virtue, and, even, dare I say it, holiness. Good, like the term realist, has a classical, a modern, and a post-modern definition. Jesus declared that only God is "good." Classical philosophers found such definitions too rigorous, however, and they proposed a variety of alternate definitions. Thus, we have the followers of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus Epicurus], who belie..." current
• 21:5221:52, 5 March 2023 diff hist +2,706‎ N Globalism ‎ Created page with "One of the more intriguing words in use, today. The first thing to note is that the connotations attaching to the term today are not reflected in the dictionary definitions. For example: : Dictionary.com defines globalism as "the attitude or policy of placing the interests of the entire world above those of individual nations." : Merriam-Webster.com defines globalism as "a national policy of treating the whole world as a proper sphere for political influence." The Mer..." current
• 21:4121:41, 5 March 2023 diff hist +5‎ Main Page ‎No edit summary Tag: Manual revert
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• 21:2921:29, 5 March 2023 diff hist +4,245‎ N Female priesthood ‎ Created page with "Female priesthood, as currently conceived in mainline monotheistic religions, is a cultural and historical aberration. There is a fascinating article in Wikipedia on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordination_of_women ordination of women] which, if the reader is patient and thorough in reading and "drilling down" to source articles, clearly demonstrates the following points of interest to this issue: : Not every instance of ordained priesthood covered in the article is ac..." current
• 21:2821:28, 5 March 2023 diff hist +3,660‎ N Gender Equality ‎ Created page with "The idea behind gender equality in the post-modern era is that all genders are equal in all respects. What does "equal" mean, you ask? Given the evident differences among genders (in pre-post-modern times, one would have said "between genders") the term "equal" is clearly problematic. Are apples and oranges equal? Yet gender equality is a prerequisite concept for equal justice under the law in the eyes of progressives. In practice, this leads to many distortions...." current
• 21:2621:26, 5 March 2023 diff hist +2,465‎ N Gender ‎ Created page with "More than any other term in the English language, the term "gender" is notoriously difficult to define. Once upon a time, the term "gender" was a kind of generic term applied to the classification of male vs. female. In many languages, however, gender came to be applied to inanimate objects with no discernible connection with sexual function or orientation. As if this were not confusing enough, a consensus built within polite society to agree to label a man "female," o..." current
• 21:2321:23, 5 March 2023 diff hist +1,338‎ N Freedom ‎ Created page with "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the term "freedom" referred to a capacity to pursue the good without interference from tyrants. Nowadays, paleos refer to this as "freedom for" to distinguish it from "freedom from." What's confusing about all of this is the use of the term "good." Like the term realist, the term good has a classical, a modern and a post-modern definition. The impact of this is to give the term "freedom" three definitions. We h..." current
• 21:1921:19, 5 March 2023 diff hist +1,000‎ N Free Thinker ‎ Created page with "The term free thinker is an artifact of modern thought, and is prototypically defined (at least in precursor form) by the thought of Rene Descartes, who believed that everything should be questioned, even belief in God, and should only be accepted on the basis of logic and reason. Descartes, rather conveniently, was able to invent all sorts of reasons to justify his Christianity. Others, of a more skeptical bent, who followed him, such as Voltaire and Nietzsche, found su..." current
• 21:0521:05, 5 March 2023 diff hist +4,245‎ N Female Priesthood ‎ Created page with "Female priesthood, as currently conceived in mainline monotheistic religions, is a cultural and historical aberration. There is a fascinating article in Wikipedia on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordination_of_women ordination of women] which, if the reader is patient and thorough in reading and "drilling down" to source articles, clearly demonstrates the following points of interest to this issue: : Not every instance of ordained priesthood covered in the article is ac..." current
• 21:0321:03, 5 March 2023 diff hist +493‎ N Father ‎ Created page with "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the term "father" 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 "father" that is connected in some mysterious way with another concept they call "God." When the curator of the World Museum of Natural History was queried as to what this might be, however, its response was "I dunno. Yo..." current
• 21:0221:02, 5 March 2023 diff hist +2,622‎ N Family ‎ Created page with "The post-modern world has determined that the classical definition of what constitutes a "family" (comprising a father, mother and one or more offspring - with an "extended family" covering more than two generations) is hopelessly out of date and utterly unworkable. It isn't simply that, in an age of a declining institution of marriage, less than half of "families" satisfy that definition, the whole idea that a father and mother have any kind of special rela..." current
• 21:0121:01, 5 March 2023 diff hist +1,100‎ N Entitlement ‎ Created page with "Entitlement can refer to a legal code (or clause), a social contract or a legally or socially sanctioned expectation. It can also refer to a narcissistic frame of mind aided and abetted by a culture, that indeed largely defines a culture. It can refer to something as trivial as a gratuity "earned" by a faithful patron of the corner pizza parlor, as large as a retirement pension or as comprehensive and ephemeral as "happiness" or even "eternal salvation." The late note..." current
• 20:5720:57, 5 March 2023 diff hist +4,728‎ N Elites ‎ Created page with "Every society is stratified in some manner. The simplest definition of elites is the people who occupy the highest stratum, and who have the greatest and deepest influence on the shape of society and of events. Of course, that's a fairly bookish definition, and it is probably of no help in identifying who the world's elites, in fact, are. If we think in terms of movie scenes, if we assume the dominance of Western nations and if we assume that "money talks", we can per..." current
• 20:5620:56, 5 March 2023 diff hist +447‎ N Economic Stimulus Package ‎ Created page with "In the words of the early 21st century American President, Barack Obama, an economic stimulus package is a spending package. It follows from this (and the law of verbal association) that any spending package qualifies as an economic stimulus package. Clearly, any spending package induces some economic stimulus. Since it would be undemocratic to consider the ratio of stimulus to spending to be a matter of any importance, we will not do so here." current
• 20:5420:54, 5 March 2023 diff hist +926‎ N Doublespeak ‎ Created page with "(For a detailed historical analysis of the term, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak ''Wikipedia's'' article on Doublespeak].) Doublespeak is a term used to label any politically-motivated abuse of language. Unfortunately, "abuse of language" is often not recognized when it exists and often imagined when it doesn't. This wiki is dedicated, in large measure, to exposing and lampooning such semantic chicanery. While early use of doublespeak could reasonably b..." current
• 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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