We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

A contribution to debate

The Right Wing Dictionary – Here’s what the words and phrases conservatives use REALLY mean.

They’re not sending their best. However I must admit that “arse-badger” is a nifty little insult which I shall save for future use.

If you do not have the time or energy to follow such an intellectual analysis of the true meaning of terms used in political debate, try this for light relief:

‘Defund the police’ is not nonsense. Here’s what it really means

7 comments to A contribution to debate

  • Fraser Orr

    Perhaps this video would be better renamed “Projection”.

    A left winger is accusing right wingers of mindless name calling, extreme anger and shouting people down rather than honestly debating ideas. I presume the author of this video doesn’t ever actually go outside or hasn’t turned on the telly or met another actual human being in their life?

    Here, back on the planet earth, left wingers are trying to turn the rest of the world into the intolerant, deplatforming, rage filled, fired-if-you-don’t-spout-the-party-line world that they have already created in university campuses.

    I had to look up arsebadger:

    The sort of large dark furry turd with a deceptively slender head that causes a painful dilation of the anus when expelled.

    Lovely.

  • Here, back on the planet earth, left wingers are trying to turn the rest of the world into the intolerant, deplatforming, rage filled, fired-if-you-don’t-spout-the-party-line world that they have already created in university campuses.

    Just the Orwellian “Two Minutes Hate” writ large.

    It’s become so boring that even CHAZ/CHOP was shutdown and those remaining arrested without it being some huge media event. Apparently killing several people couldn’t motivate Mayor Durkan, but a bunch of Antifa/BLM types turning up at her home did. Must remember this for next time.

  • Nullius in Verba

    “I presume the author of this video doesn’t ever actually go outside or hasn’t turned on the telly or met another actual human being in their life?”

    I suspect the author is thinking of someone specific they’ve had such a conversation with. I certainly am! 🙂

  • It may be hard to fathom, but no matter how much policing and prisons have expanded in the last 30 years, there has been no improvement in public safety.

    I am indeed finding the Grauniad writer’s statement hard to fathom as phrased in its context.

    New York a few years before Rudy Giuliani and New York a few years after Rudy Giuliani are often contrasted to make the opposite point. Rudy did better policing rather than just more, and he reduced police crime as well as civilian crime (as a natural effect of his policies, just as the natural effect of de Blasio’s policies is more police crime as well as much more civilian crime – recently, it was reported that the pre-Rudy habit, in some high-crime NY areas, of having babies sleep in bath tubs is now returning). So while more police, like more government in general, most certainly does not have to mean better policing, the reverse is true: absent law and order, every one of the ‘social responses’ the Grauniad writer prefers will become a racket. (Of course, his pretending that defund the police means something less drastic is also a racket.)

    Here in the UK, you can certainly argue that policing has ‘not improved’ (note English understatement 🙂 ) in the last 30 years, but the only true sense in which any of that was indeed caused by more policing is not one the Grauniad writer would like.

  • TomJ

    […]every one of the ‘social responses’ the Grauniad writer prefers will become a racket.

    It is worth noting the universal truth of Counsell’s Fourth Law: Where there’s a subsidy, there’s a scam.

    Having quoted that, I might as well share the first three:

    Counsell’s First Law
    The Cool Kids are always wrong, even when they are right.

    Counsell’s Second Law
    The two most powerful forces known to contemporary humankind are peer pressure and the desire for a quiet life.

    Counsell’s Third Law
    The most dangerous political weakness is sentimentality. It’s not a coincidence that every form of fascism has had a deep and wide sentimental streak.

    Finally, as we started with a dictionary, James Lindsey’s <a href="https://newdiscourses.com/translations-from-the-wokish/"<Translations from the Wokish is an ongoing project that’s worth a look. Notable in that he is trying to use the definitions Critical Theoreticians actully use, citing sources, rather than inventing what he would like them to be saying.

  • Paul Marks

    I very strongly suspect that if I click on these bits of coloured text I will be led to a pack of highly offensive lies and general leftist propaganda.

    I will not do that – as if I want lies and general leftist propaganda I can turn on any of the television news stations that are allowed in the United Kingdom.

  • G Wilson

    You’d think leftists would notice that shouting at straw men isn’t winning any battles for them.

    It’d be interesting to see the video remade with definitions given by someone who actually uses the terms it claims to critique.