Just to hammer home the point that so many of those who claim to want civil discourse engage in anything but, we have this gem via Uppity Woman.
Original Post:
Now that we have only ten weeks until the latest 'hope and change' election, I have time to post on a niggling irritant - the abuse of language in campaigns and political discourse. The ones that bug me the most are misused on both the left and the right.
Nazi:: feminazi, environazi
Phobia: homophobia, islamaphobia
Vast Conspiracies (right & left)
Give it a rest already people. People who are feminists are not evil dictators taking over the entire known world through murder and brute force (and the use is an insult to those that survived the real Nazis), and disagreement over whether or not marriage should be reserved or if a mosque should be built at Ground Zero does not rise to the level of phobia. And frankly, no vast conspiracies exist or could given human nature. Those who constantly yammer about the state of 'civil discourse' would do well to stop using the language they deplore (and read up a little on our historical political debates that were anything but civil). Those who want civil discourse must employ it.
