Nixon *was* a crook -- and there was sufficient inquiry to prove it. But the term was used long before he broke the law by people who had no facts in either direction.
The earlier use was name-calling. The latter use, though vulgar, was accurate.
It gets more interesting, though, when the rhetoric changes the word. There is nothing dirty or shameful about "liberal." Its dictionary meaning suggests lots of warm fuzzies, in fact. But when Bush sr. talked about "card-carrying liberals" there was no doubt he was using it pejoratively.
It wasn't the word that disturbed me; it was the sneer.
[edited because the order of coments didn't make it clear to whom I was responding.]
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-11-19 03:24 pm (UTC)Nixon *was* a crook -- and there was sufficient inquiry to prove it. But the term was used long before he broke the law by people who had no facts in either direction.
The earlier use was name-calling. The latter use, though vulgar, was accurate.
It gets more interesting, though, when the rhetoric changes the word. There is nothing dirty or shameful about "liberal." Its dictionary meaning suggests lots of warm fuzzies, in fact. But when Bush sr. talked about "card-carrying liberals" there was no doubt he was using it pejoratively.
It wasn't the word that disturbed me; it was the sneer.
[edited because the order of coments didn't make it clear to whom I was responding.]