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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   3514 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?

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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).

"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.

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