In case you hadn't noticed, one of my big pet-peeves has been the PC redefining of the English language. This is a conscious effort to frame arguments so that one side is necessarily right and one is wrong. College campuses are particularly egregious, but the news media is fast behind. Read the following article, see if you notice the intentional slight-of-word:
Quote:
The Nation
Sun Feb 12, 4:01 PM ET
The Nation -- To truly understand conservatives, you need to experience them in their element. The largest such gathering of true believers is the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which took place this weekend in Washington, DC. CPAC is a rite of passage for young conservatives, graced by the likes of Dick Cheney, John Bolton and Bill Frist.
I and The Nation's Max Blumenthal stopped by on Friday, hoping to catch Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record), the subject of Jeff Sharlet's masterful profile in this month's Rolling Stone. Brownback didn't show, but luckily Ann Coulter was on the menu later in the day. She didn't disappoint--characterizing Muslims as "ragheads," comparing moderate Republicans to slave plantations and wishing she'd assassinated Bill Clinton. Go read Max's blog for the full account.
Before Coulter's speech we strolled around the exhibit hall, home to such vendors as the "ex-gay is OK" table and "Muslims for Bush." We stopped by the booth of one man opposed to affirmative action in South Africa, of all places. Much to our surprise, he was not a fan of the current Republican Party or its followers. When Max told him to go see Coulter he responded, "my friend warned me about her."
Even white nationalists from South Africa are more mainstream than Republican activists in this country.
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Did you catch it? I'll give you a hint: it's in the last sentence.
This article has intentionally redefined the word "mainstream".
Dictionary.com defines "mainstream" as:
Quote:
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Representing the prevalent attitudes, values, and practices of a society or group
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Notice the use of the word "prevalent". Mainstream can also be defined as the opinions of the majority.
Notice that in this article, mainstream means: "The opinions of everyone but Republicans." But wait, the use also seems to imply that though a majority nationally in every concievable definition of the word, Republicans cannot be mainstream.