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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   3513 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 4, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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It seems to me that the word “spew” is very left-coded in online discourse. “You’re just looking for an excuse to spew your hatred”, “he was spewing his racism and homophobia everywhere”, etc.

This is interesting because, in contrast to an overtly political term like “privilege”, or even a set phrase like “there’s a lot to unpack here”, the word “spew” is a longstanding and perfectly innocuous non-political term from ordinary language. And yet to my ears it has still taken on a political valence. I rarely hear a rightist say something like “and then he started spewing his politically correct nonsense”, if ever.

Can you think of any initially non-political words or patterns of speech that have become right-coded? (Or just more leftist examples - I know there are more besides just “spew” but I’m drawing a blank at the moment).

I have found one of the strongest subtle clues to indicate that someone is a leftist (or mired in leftist ideology) is their use of the rhetorical “right?” to end statements of dubious fact, or just statements which they know are unacceptable to refute, mostly things “we all know, right?”. It’s like a tic where they can’t stop doing it even if they tried.

I don't know about politics specifically but its definitely female coded, as is all consensus building formation of language. Other examples are "we can all agree" at the beginning of a phrase or Uptalk in non-interrogative statements, where the tone of voice is raised as the phrase progresses. Its purpose is coalition building and identifying and preemptively shaming dissent. Listen to women speak to each other, especially younger women. Its not just politics. In men it sounds weak and lacks confidence or like a scam artist/salesman.

Wait, I do this too though?

If it’s any comfort, most people pick up this tic simply by being immersed in leftist academic or professional environments, not necessarily by being a leftist themselves. Compared to some of the other answers in this thread, the rhetorical “right?” is a sort of “hidden indicator,” not necessarily a conscious change of vocabulary.

It might be something I imagined or misunderstood because English isn't my native language and I only got good at it around 2015. But I always get the feeling that the construct of "amid " is almost exclusively used by leftie mainstream media to associate something with a bad slant.

I would expect a right-winger to use "spout" instead of "spew" in that context. Words I think of as left-coded include "problematic," "gaslight," and "decency."

It does seems as though there is a pipeline of new vocabulary from 4chan to online rightists to extremely online people in general and then to the population at large (see "based") and perhaps another one from tumblr to online leftists to online rightists making fun of them to the population at large (see "woke"). Funny enough, both of those words come ultimately from black English, which seems to be the true source of linguistic innovation in America.

"Noticing," of course. And using the general phrase "has anyone noticed...?" to open a topic. Leftists have almost completely switched to speaking in plain assertions.

"There's a lot to unpack here" god I hate that, irrationally so, almost as much as cringe used as an adjective, though cringey is no better.

The word leftist itself is right-coded. You don't hear a lot of left-leaning people use the word (or, I myself don't hear them).

The term indoctrinate seems more right-coded now, particularly when referring to education. Deplorable used ironically as a noun to refer to a person, for obvious reasons.

I’d say staunch ideological leftists call themselves leftists all the time. Average Democrats don’t, but the right calls them that, so that’s the asymmetry you’re witnessing.

The word leftist itself is right-coded. You don't hear a lot of left-leaning people use the word (or, I myself don't hear them).

I think left leaning people usually would say "The left believes X" where as right leaning people would say "Leftists believe X".

I seem to remember a lot of "I'm not a liberal, I'm a leftist" during the ascendence of Breadtube.

I have noticed that libertarians tend to use "government" without a preceding article. "Government collects taxes" where most people would say "the government collects taxes" etc. There are of course cases where articles aren't generally used, such as when talking about governance in the abstract. But in this comment from /r/libertarian, for example:

Government has been using the IRS to retaliate since its inception.

I think most would put a "the" at the start of the sentence.

General trend of emphasis you see in corporate comms. Eg. Apple doesn’t say “The iPhone now lets you…” they say “iPhone now lets you…”. They remove the ‘the’.

I recall Pete Buttigieg getting disparaged by the left for using the term "virtue signalling". The left might admit that such a phenomenon exists (I think maybe "performative activism" is the approved phrase this year?) but using right-coded vocabulary for it was taken as evidence that he'd been talking to the other side too much to be a safe candidate.

More broadly, "woke" appears to have been ceded to the right, with the euphemism treadmill there cranked up so fast that no replacement seems to be forthcoming.

Interesting topic given blue/red ethnogenesis. ‘Fake’ seems mostly used by the right. ‘Retarded’ is apolitical in general use but if it’s part of a polemic the person using it is almost certainly right wing. ‘Abuse’ is like that too- leftists rant about creepy or predatory behavior but are usually less Frank.

For not so controversial examples, anyone under 60 pronouncing the wh is almost assuredly a very partisan Republican.

For not so controversial examples, anyone under 60 pronouncing the wh is almost assuredly a very partisan Republican.

What do you mean by this?

Pie tastes better with cool whip

A small number of American English speakers pronounce the first sound in whilst differently from in will. These speakers exhibit the usual partisan variation if they’re social security(actually most of them are old blacks, but whatever), but are universally partisan republicans if they’re younger. The regional epicenter is Oklahoma and northern Texas, but even within white, blue collar Fort Worth dwellers pronouncing whip like it has an h in it is a tell tale of being very conservative.

“Degenerate?”

Maybe it’s past the line of self-awareness, because it’s clearly got an actual political history. The rare occasions of unironic use are definitely right-coded.

“Agenda” is mainstream on the right. As is “activists.” I think it’s pretty rare to see those used in the other direction.

Not sure if I really see “elites” used by the left. “Washington” elites even more so.

Elites is used all the time by the left but I think it’s slowly being replaced by “billionaires”.

“Gross” as in disgusting is another good one used primarily by the left.

For the inverse I think “ugly” is a word that used to be used by both sides but which now is more of a conservative word. “Wicked”, “cursed”, “Satanic” (obviously) and other words with quasi-religious or archaic connotations are used more by the right.

Obviously there are also words like “degenerate” or “bigoted” that are strongly coded to one side and have been for many years.

“Hellscape” is a word both sides like to use to refer to their enemies’ ideal world.

"Screed".

I think that’s another good leftist example, yeah (assuming you meant it as leftist and not rightist).

The reason I asked this question was because this feels like a specifically leftist phenomenon to me - these speech patterns and tics that aren’t inherently political themselves, but still end up getting used repeatedly by leftists. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed any similar words associated with the right, but that could just be my own bias that I can’t see through. The right certainly has many memes like “based” but I don’t think it’s the same thing.

speech patterns and tics

Would you also include vocal fry and upspeak as examples of this?

"Based", "seethe"

Based, Seethe and Cope were co-opted by online leftists though, you see them all the time on Tumblr and Twitter from the usual crowd.

Can you think of any initially non-political words or patterns of speech that have become right-coded?

Cope.

Not a bad example, but I think it falls a little short because it does get used self-consciously as a meme sometimes. Same with “based” and “seethe” (especially “based”, it’s almost entirely a meme). “Spew” only ever gets used unconsciously in the course of ordinary language, never as a meme.

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