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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   3516 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).

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?

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.

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