saltwind 78 wrote:
I certainly agree that the extreme left is a real problem. They always have been, but how about the far right? It seems to me that the people that support Mr. Bannion are at least as much of a threat as the left wing kids at Berkley.
I have spent a few hours looking up the definitions of certain words used by (modern) Leftist/Liberals, and find that these words are being used so as to "fog" genuine thinking. Words like "alt-right", "far right", "left wing", "antifa", "islamism", "multiculturism", even "democracy", "freedom", and especially "fascist". And that reminded me of Orwell:
"MEANINGLESS WORDS. In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning(2). Words like romantic, plastic, values, human, dead, sentimental, natural, vitality, as used in art criticism, are strictly meaningless, in the sense that they not only do not point to any discoverable object, but are hardly ever expected to do so by the reader. When one critic writes, ‘The outstanding feature of Mr. X's work is its living quality’, while another writes, ‘The immediately striking thing about Mr. X's work is its peculiar deadness’, the reader accepts this as a simple difference opinion. If words like black and white were involved, instead of the jargon words dead and living, he would see at once that language was being used in an improper way. Many political words are similarly abused. The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable’. The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another. In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using that word if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different. Statements like Marshal Petain was a true patriot, The Soviet press is the freest in the world, The Catholic Church is opposed to persecution, are almost always made with intent to deceive. Other words used in variable meanings, in most cases more or less dishonestly, are: class, totalitarian, science, progressive, reactionary, bourgeois, equality."
From "Politics and the English Language", George Orwell. About 1945 or thereabouts.
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_politAll should read this article by Orwell. Or SHOULD have read it by now.