Over the last 10-20 years, the label Liberal became offensive so that people are now giving themselves a different label for the same beliefs.
As I was reading the IMO Warning about tolerance thread, I found that the same is happening with the neoconservative label though most mainstream newspapers still use it to define someone who subscribes to a certain set of beliefs.
Example - Time Leading neoconservative thinker Norman Podhoretz is back, and so is the campaign to bomb Iran.
So why is it now offensive to use the term neoconserative or liberal when describing a force in our political arena? Is it because their ideas and beliefs have come under ridicule and people don't want to associate themselves with it?
I did come across this comment in commentary, The Fashionable Perjorative by Barry Gewen Not long ago, a well-known culture critic with strong neoconservative inclinations told me he was reluctant to be forthright about his political views because “once the label ‘neoconservative’ becomes attached to you, people stop listening to what you have to say.†There’s no question that “neoconservative†has become, in many quarters of both the left and right, a fashionable pejorative, to be casually tossed about, and just as casually misapplied.
When and why do you find the use of these terms offensive? And do we resort to labeling because we don't know how to properly debate the issues instead?
As I was reading the IMO Warning about tolerance thread, I found that the same is happening with the neoconservative label though most mainstream newspapers still use it to define someone who subscribes to a certain set of beliefs.
Example - Time Leading neoconservative thinker Norman Podhoretz is back, and so is the campaign to bomb Iran.
So why is it now offensive to use the term neoconserative or liberal when describing a force in our political arena? Is it because their ideas and beliefs have come under ridicule and people don't want to associate themselves with it?
I did come across this comment in commentary, The Fashionable Perjorative by Barry Gewen Not long ago, a well-known culture critic with strong neoconservative inclinations told me he was reluctant to be forthright about his political views because “once the label ‘neoconservative’ becomes attached to you, people stop listening to what you have to say.†There’s no question that “neoconservative†has become, in many quarters of both the left and right, a fashionable pejorative, to be casually tossed about, and just as casually misapplied.
When and why do you find the use of these terms offensive? And do we resort to labeling because we don't know how to properly debate the issues instead?
Now "liberal" is being changed within their own circles to "progressive" even though it means the same thing, from what I can tell. But when I used the term "liberal" I personally didn't mean in with a sneer or in a snide manner, but that is how it was read by those who were being defined by that term.
) at the shear number of what used to be common words that are now considered offensive.
The straight term of "conservative" doesn't really apply any more because of the social/morality based conservatism that has come to the forefront with this administration and supporters. So anymore, it doesn't matter that I'm personally Pro-Life and politically Pro-Choice, I would rather just say that I'm socially libertarian (meaning "government needs to stay the heck out of my personal business!").
