Glossary: Key memes, counterfactuals, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms, fake outrages and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, April 21-30, 2016

the climate police: anyone concerned about the environment, climate change, global warming, etc. Rhetorically hints that any environmental regulatory action is authoritarian at best, and a form of schoolmarm scolding and social control. These police are related to the “pc police.”

the collective: the ultimate leftist cult, in which individual rights and matters of conscience are always subordinated to the authority of the collective.

equal protection under the law: leftist ideology

Hillary-as-criminal: a given. Here’s what happened to “innocent until proven guilty”:

Guilt and innocence do not determine judgment, but rather judgment determines all, including the definition of guilt.–Anthony Marra, The Tsar of Love and Techno

Leviathan: the federal government.

market uncertainty: the real culprit of the 2008 financial meltdown, caused by government inconsistency, regulatory excess, and pressure to issue sub-prime loans to unqualified minority borrowers. Perfect certainty would cause perfect markets.

raid: government policing or regulatory actions, especially those that affect consumers and businesses.

regrettable infelicities: any of the Donald’s statements that provoke outrage in the liberal Democrats. Aka, “lapses of taste and judgment.”

resentment: the rhetorical heart of Trumpism: economic resentment, immigration resentment, racial resentment, gender resentment.

trends: what pass for principles among Dems. Always shifting and subject to change, depending on what’s trending or politically correct at the time. Examples include playing “the woman card” and identity politics, climate change, and charges of p0lice violence. None of these rest on a principled foundation: gender identity politics for its own sake is pandering; climate change is a man=made fiction, and “police violence” is an urban myth.

“unfair” and “abusive”: government-speak for market-driven business practices.

“you can’t say that about a woman”: Trump’s attack on political correctness that he uses as ironic justification whenever he calls women screamers, “disgusting”, ugly, etc.

 

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms, fake outrages and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, April 5-12, 2016

Clinton Foundation: the Brazilianization of US politics.

humiliation: A bedrock Trumpian narrative, invoking outrage, victimhood,  and revenge . This narrative of retaliation frames our refusal to exert force abroad as a pathological weakness,   and is fueled by the myth of American Exceptionalism to generate and inform a seething  emotional and philosophical seedbed of violence and retaliation. Singling out “the bad guys” (Mexicans, Muslims, etc.)  assigns blame for feelings of humiliation, vulnerability, and powerlessness. Trump Nation serves as both an audience and a humiliated protagonist who will do anything to reclaim agency and sovereignty. After all, the word humiliation’s Greek root has to do with dirt, subordination, a putting down, hierarchies–the very opposite rhetorical schema  as that of American Exceptionalism. 

This argument that humiliation lies at the roots of fascism was summed up nicely in 1995 by Umberto Eco, who argued that  fascists are a cult of “action for action’s sake,” where “thinking is a form of emasculation”; an intolerance of “analytical criticism,” where disagreement is condemned; a profound “fear of difference,” where leaders appeal against “intruders”; appeals to individual and social frustration and specifically a “frustrated middle class” suffering from “feelings of political humiliation and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups”; a nationalist identity set against internal and external enemies (an “obsession with a plot”); a feeling of humiliation by the “ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies”; a “popular elitism” where “every citizen belongs to the best people of the world” and underscored by contempt for the weak; and a celebration of aggressive (and often violent) masculinity.

legal thieves: government officials. Almost all taxation is over-taxation.

living Constitution: the Lib Dem rationale for limiting the rights of citizens and Congress through judges legislating from the bench.

moral relativism: the seeds of Al Qaeda and ISIS. Rooted in the moral nihilism of the Lib Dems.

“of course”, “no one is saying,” etc: The standard qualifier, designed to counter liberal charges of racism, sexism, etc.  This rhetorical ploy is a smokescreen designed to shift the conversation and reassure the faithful, as Fred Clark argues in his Slactivism blog:

The substance of the Standard Answer comes last because the substantial aspect — punish doctors, not women — isn’t coherent enough to bear the weight of a satisfactory answer. The load-bearing work is done prior to that insubstantial substance. The key component is the dismissive tone — all that “of course” and “no one is saying …” business that denies the legitimacy of the question and thus denies that any response needs to be substantial or logical or coherent. The boldness of this evasion is softened and diffused by the move from singular to plural and from the particular to a vague, undifferentiated “we.”

The Standard Answer, in other words, avoids engaging the question as “What do I think” by shifting the response to “What we say/think/believe is …” This may seem unimportant to the questioner, but it is vitally important to the answerer because, again, this is the primary function of the Standard Answer: reassuring oneself that an answer exists and that “we” have one, and that therefore I do not need to worry about it any further.

religious freedom:  The freedom to exercise your faith-based conscience, even if it means curtailing the freedom of others. The logic of this claim of “freedom” invariably leads to protecting bigots.

supple economy: one with low taxes and little or no regulation. A supple economy works best with a supine government. A well-functioning capitalist system relies on prices for guidance, not rules.

urban school children: victims of the pathology of black culture: absent fathers, drug addiction, hip-hop, etc. Notice how this meme pathologizes all black youth, who already face the high likelihood of prison, police stops, etc.

 

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms, fake outrages and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, March 29-April 2, , 2016

boutique leftism: the superficial, self-righteous and hypocritical ideological core of Angela’s Merkel’s pro-immigrant, green, redistributionist  Europe. Designed to make elitist leftists feel good abut themselves and how they are improving the world, while all the while mostly jus feathering their own privileged nests.

coastal progressives: the snobby, tony elites who run the Democratic party and look down on “flyover America.”

Europeanization of America’s youth: the current under-30 generation: social networking hedonists, ego-driven rationalists and perpetual adolescents, not working, living with their parents, waiting for government handouts, and sneering at tradition and religion.

fairness: lib-dem-speak for entirely arbitrary workplace rules,minimum salaries, working conditions, etc., disguised as natural law, “economic justice”  or “the way the universe bends.” “Fairness” in Dems’ minds is always the main quality of  the policy they most favor.

GOP establishment: caution, timidity, retreat, compromise

international trade: always job-killing

lawless: any Obama or Clinton policy position, executive action, or personal acts that can be politicized, such as e-mail accounts

lesser Americans:.anyone not supporting HRH HRC or other lib-dems.

moral posturing: any Dem policy position or statement of core principles.

national suicide: not closing our borders to all Muslims.

privileges: what feminists want. Men, on the other hand, now get all the responsibilities. Everything is now judged on the basis of the way it affects women: wages, charges of sexual harassment, etc.

rollback: drastic cuts to the federal budget as a way to return to limited, constitutional government. But, of course, “keep your guvment hands off my Social Security.”

“social justice” crusaders: Hillary and Bernie’s misguided and hopelessly naive  supporters, perennial whiners for equality.  Obama’s were known as “community organizers.” Part of the Western therapeutic mindset, such as that prevailing in Merkel’s Europe. (see above).  Note that the whole notion of social justice is always put in fright quotes to delegitimize it.

strength: dominance, bullying, blackmail and extortion, especially in foreign policy.

“suspect”: any innocent target of the Obama/Lynch/Holder cabal that persecutes religious groups, political opponents, and  businesses and police groups they don’t approve of.

 

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms, fake outrages and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, March 24-28, 2016

America First: America no longer “leading from behind,” and “losing internationally, but, instead, dictating the terms of trade deals, bullying foes into submission through overwhelming military force and torture, and blackmailing nations into submitting to US will. Another Superpower delusion.

Cheerleader-in-Chief: Trump’s version of Presidential leadership.

Cuban opening: Obama’s dorm-room enthusiasm for Che turned into American foreign policy. Coddling the tyrants.

faith-based justice: Ted Cruz’s legal framework. 

As this website points out,:

No one on the council represented any non-Christian religions nor any of the LGBT-inclusive or even more moderate Christian denominations. With Ted Cruz as president, it seems the only religion that will have any liberty is his particular conservative brand of evangelical Christianity.

It’s fascinating how a supposedly “objective” bedrock principle such as Constitutional Law can be based on faith, an unproven, wholly interpretive concept. (see also, “fear and loathing,” below).

fear and loathing: the core Trumpinista emotions. Explains their black and white dichotomies: winning/losing, us/them; telling it like it is/political correctness; making/taking, etc.

Herself: HRC.

“I don’t necessarily agree with his position on….”: How Trumpinistas frequently qualify their endorsement of Trump. This is usually followed by “but I know he won’t back down and he’ll fight for me.”

inner-city poverty: caused by the lack of “spirit” in “the Blacks,” according to the Donald.

Islamophobia: a junk term, akin to “climate change”, the female wage gap, or “evolution”. These are all Lib-Dem fairy tales.

life: a zero-sum game, with winners and losers (aka, “discards”) and no one in between. In The Donald’s  cruel black and white Darwinian world, success is defined in terms of money and power, and always comes at someone else’s expense. This is why he can’t just disagree with people but has to insult them. This is why he must smugly dominate every political issue. This is why he can lie and twist the facts. Life as total war, and Trump as the ultimate alpha male.

political correctness:  the Lib Dem’s free-floating world of ignorance and moral narcissism.

respect: respect the Trumpinistas’ anxiety; submit to their taxonomy of hatred, division, and animosity; cater to their fears and desperate need to feel protected from imaginary evils, enemies, and anarchic forces hellbent on defeating the US.

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms, fake outrages and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, March 5-16, 2016

antics: any Dem/liberal behavior at public meetings or rallies. When Tea Party supporters voice their opinions, it’s called free speech, not “antics”.

the big lie: that Americans (“clingers”) are racists with no right to defend their national borders.

civility: what the Libs/Dems have “cheapened” in American political discourse.

creating voters: what the Dems are doing with immigration politics. As usual, the Tea Party ascribes the basest motives to any Dem policy.

critical theory: academic PC logic: use scholarship to change society, not study it. The equivalent is politically-active judges, legislating from the bench.

government: a disease, masquerading as its own cure.

Islam hates us: they’re all fair game

Islamification of the homeland: Barack & Hillary’s America.

liberal fascists: any anti-Trump protesters. As per usual, this is a deployment of the Rove Principle: call everything its opposite and turn any label your opponents use against you back onto them. So the angry mobs that Trump encourages are really all liberals or fomented by liberals; the Dems are the racists; Obamacare has ruined  the American health care system even thought it’s added coverage for 15 million people, job growth is really job loss, etc.

nuance: political correctness

personal responsibility: what the takers (aka, losers) lack. GOP code language for the lack of any social responsibility  or obligation.

protestors and Democrats: America haters.

transnational collectives: What the entities formally known as nation states are turned into by globalization and trade agreements.

Trump opponents: anyone not 100% behind him is 1000% against him.

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms, fake outrages and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, Feb 28-March 4, 2016

abortion exceptionalism: when women are denied access to abortion clinics because the clinics don’t meet health standards. Even if abortion clinics are far less likely to cause medical problems than, say, colonoscopy centers, they are being forced to meet higher health standards, thus placing an “undue burden” on women.

common American culture: Christian American culture.

freedom: to hate. As Chris Hedges, characterizing Trumpists, puts it:

These Americans want a kind of freedom—a freedom to hate. They want the freedom to use words like “nigger,” “kike,” “spic,” “chink,” “raghead” and “fag.” They want the freedom to idealize violence and the gun culture. They want the freedom to have enemies, to physically assault Muslims, undocumented workers, African-Americans, homosexuals and anyone who dares criticize their cryptofascism. They want the freedom to celebrate historical movements and figures that the college-educated elites condemn, including the Ku Klux Klan and the Confederacy. They want the freedom to ridicule and dismiss intellectuals, ideas, science and culture. They want the freedom to silence those who have been telling them how to behave. And they want the freedom to revel in hypermasculinity, racism, sexism and white patriarchy. These are the core sentiments of fascism. These sentiments are engendered by the collapse of the liberal state.

freedom of religion: letting Christians be Christians. “Freedom of religion” in this case clearly does not mean “freedom of religions, ” but freedom of only Christianity.

hate speech: criticism of Trump or the Tea Party. Libs’ self-righteousness makes them inherently and unfailingly intolerant.

immigrants: invaders.

individual responsibility: the cornerstone of the Social Darwinism that lies at the heart of Tea Party ideology. Dems tend to believe in social responsibility instead.

police abuse: abuse of the police, not by the police.

natural-born American citizens: the group of “legitimate” Americans most under threat from foreign “invaders”. Also chronically- unemployed or underemployed.

unelected judges: Tea Party criticism of any Supreme Court decision they don’t like: that it was the verdict of at least five unelected judges. When the decision goes their way, the judges are called “strict constructionists” instead.

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms, fake outrages, and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, Feb. 16-21, 2016

court packing: Obama’s deluded belief that he can appoint the next Supreme Court justice

classless society: what America was until the liberals seized control under FDR and sowed the seeds of envy, class warfare, and redistributionist blackmail. Upward mobility has  been eliminated in America, and we thus are stuck in a quasi-socialist, Euro-style class-driven doldrums.

the cognoscenti : the super elite Dems and their dogma that we will all be saved by expansive government spending, globalization free trade, and combined with a comprehensive and overarching regulatory regime. They always think they know best.

the democratic process: works when the outcome favors Tea Party policies or aims. For example, it applies to “letting the people” rather than the sitting President, decide on the next Supreme Court justice, even if the President has a constitutional duty to do so.

divisive: any extreme Dem policy position or ideology, including reparations, climate change, political correctness, evolution, gay rights, etc. aka, “identity politics.”

As pointed out in a recent New York Times Magazine column by Wesley Morris, this term used to mean “something worth arguing about. ”  Now it’s always modified with “too”, meaning that the subject is too controversial to discuss. This is a weaponized, master rhetorical trope used to marginalize–as in make toxic– almost any of President Obama’s policies or statements. When the Tea Party says that something is “too divisive,” or that the Dems are  playing a “card” (“race card,” “war-against-women card,” etc), they are signalling that the Dems are opportunistically polarizing the nation in order to demonize the Tea Party. Every subject that threatens the Tea Party is thus too fraught , polarizing, or sensitive, and so should be “taken off the table.” So “divisive” now means subjects we can’t even talk about because they have no authority or basis in fact. By calling everything threatening “divisive,” the Tea Party is actually further dividing the country. Of course, Tea Party shibboleths or God Terms–trickle down economics, free enterprise, Creationism and Intelligent Design, etc.–are accepted as fixed, eternal, unchallengeable truths, like the Bible.

The Geneva Convention: tying our troops’ hands behind their backs.

hate speech: what used to be called an honest disagreement, before the pc police took over.

honest disagreement: a polite way of saying we disagree, you’re wrong, but I’ll create the pretense of impartiality.  A corollary is to say “honest people can disagree,” which is slightly different in that it acknowledges your opponent to be honest, if stupid. When “honest people disagree,” the rhetorical deck is always stacked in favor of the speaker.

partisan gamesmanship: any Obama political appointment or policy. If he really is interested in bipartisan compromise, he will appoint a conservative to the Supreme Court. So Dems are engaged in gamesmanship when they act to their political advantage, but when the Tea Party does so it’s called “compromise” or “principled.” A Tea Party “compromise” always means they get their way.

police: neutered by the Obama-Beyonce axis of political correctness and racial pandering.

the work ethic and honest labor: tools of bondage and oppression, according to Dems and the Black Lives Matter crowd,

 

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms, fake outrages, and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, Feb 10-15, 2016

activist: Dem supporter, environmentalist or liberal judge. Always a pejorative,  like “trial lawyers.” Tea Party/GOP loyalists are called supporters, not activists.

American leadership abroad: bomb the shit out of ’em. American troops and weapons: the New Centurions.

Black Lives Matter: Demspeak for Black votes matter. After elections, the Dems abandon blacks to their  own self-generated pathology of crime, drug addiction, welfare addiction, race-baiting, out-of-wedlock births, and self-righteousness.

Chinese, Muslims and Mexicans: cheaters, terrorists and rapists.

the economic collapse: fear-mongering about the alleged “corruption” of Wall Street; actually caused by the government handing out home loan to deadbeat minority borrowers.

the end of political correctness: the return of unbridled hate speech.

the establishment:
anything not Trump.

female contraception insurance coverage: bucks for sluts.

To God Be the Glory: Is Jesus Christ Ted Cruz’s campaign manager? Does this guy have a Messiah complex, or what? At least Obama said that “we are the people we’ve been waiting for,”   whereas Cruz clearly thinks he’s The One.

identity politics:  Dems claim they want to bring all races, classes, genders, ages and sexualities together, yet if they didn’t  divide by gender, race, class, and sexual orientation, they wouldn’t win any elections. Dems rely on class envy and economic and moral coercion to enforce their straitjacket brand of political correctness

hard work and effort: the opposite of the handout mentality of the “takers”  (aka, parasites). This unadorned Social Darwinism is a key Tea Party meme, effectively cancelling out any discussion of institutional racism, poverty, the corrupting power of money, increasing inequality, sexism, etc.

moral compass: being a Christian fundamentalist.

Obama: the food stamp President.

states’ rights: the states’ ability to deny human and civil rights in the name of the majority in power.

Trumpism: might makes right, profits define success,  and great strength leads to ever-greater authority.  More fact-free misanthropy and bigoted populism.

Vox Dei: Ted Cruz, the Voice of God

Vox Populi: Donald Trump, the Voice of the People.

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms, fake outrages, and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, Feb 5-9, 2016

attacks on the police: anything suggesting there should be restraints on the police’s ability to do whatever it is that needs to be done.

diplomacy: appeasement

Europhobia: the multiculturalism replacing the successful Euro-American culture with dysfunctional Third World cultures. Unwarranted hatred and fear of whites.

farrago of lies: anything that comes out of Hillary’s mouth.

identity politics: Progressives’ cover for their self-righteous will to power.

incivility and inexperience: political assets

Judeo-Bolshevism: Bernie Sanders.

pitting people against each other: bringing up alleged racial or religious discrimination or differences. aka, “cynical” and “playing the race card.” By the logic of this trope, Dems cannot mention racism or Islamophobia or sexism without themselves being called divisive, racist and sexist. Thus the accuser becomes the accused–a perfect circle of blame and deniability for the Tea Party.

racial spoils system: tribal careerist liberals’ attempts to falsely racialize a multiracial , intermarried society. The resulting set-asides, “affirmative action” and exclusonary politics impose a narrow,  rigid, racialized narrative that only legitimizes leftist ideologues.

religious freedom: forcing faith-based values on others.

screaming: Hillary’s default mode of discourse whenever she raises her voice an octave–aka, “hysterical, “loud” feisty”, “shrill”, “nagging” and “shouting.”When Bernie or Trump, Cruz, Christie or Rubi) get assertive and do the same, it’s called being “forceful.”

tolerance: not being able to criticize Islamic violence, misogyny, homophobia, child abuse, tyranny, antisemitism, bigotry against Christians, etc. The Dem brand of tolerance is thus intolerant and threatens free speech.

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms, fake outrages, and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, January 12-18, 2016

abusers: Bill and Hillary. Trump clearly is not interested in justice, truth, or any sort of linguistic precision. In feminist theory, abuse is much more widely defined than being sexual. Rather, even physical abuse is a manifestation of much wider patterns and practices of misogyny,  inequality, the bullying use of power dynamics, social privilege, etc. Even though  Hillary’s political positions work to counter these deeper forms and drivers of abuse, whereas Trump’s perpetuate them, Trump can still benefit from playing the “abuse” card.

American flag: a symbol of hate to Dems hellbent on historical revisionism.

diversity: white genocide

ethnic identity: has replaced character as the predominant emotion and social strategy among unlawful immigrants.

illegal immigrant champions: well-connected urban elites using poor and illegal immigrants to boost their own careers.

lawless: The Obama presidency, from start to finish. The GOP strategy to delegitimize Obama from the very beginning of his presidency by never voting for any of his policies.

political correctness: is killing us, according to Ted Cruz.

political issues: any discussion of Black Lives Matter or income inequality. Dismissively and reflexively reducing inequality and poverty to mere “political issues” denigrates and undercuts them. When someone characterizes dissent as “just political,” they are in effect saying that it is one-sided, distorted, and essentially disingenuous.

the poverty-industrial complex: education in America, and all the self-serving bureaucrats and teachers’ unions that have destroyed American education and perpetuated poverty and inequality.

racial issue: any charge–or any conversation–about so-called police violence. Charges of police misbehavior are always about race, never about policing.

salad bowl: has replaced the multiracial melting pot as the dominant immigrant narrative in the US because the current generation of immigrants refuses to be part of American culture or American values and insists on “multiculturalism,” aka “diversity:”see above.” Resentment has replaced assimilation, a sense of entitlement has replaced gratitude.

unapologetic: a key feature of a robust US foreign policy. Apologies are a sign of weakness and retreat.

ungracious: Obama’s general attitude toward anyone who disagrees with him. In Tea Party logic, “graciousness” means surrendering to their positions–everything else is truculence and shows a general lack of “dignity” and “class.” Calling Obama ungracious carries the subtext that he is uncivilized–Kenyan, in fact.