Hijacking the Language

Despite what ones personal feelings about proper government, I find it a tragedy that such a wonderful word as liberal has become a slur. In the US, even the so-called left wing Democrats tend to avoid it. And don’t even get me started on the horrible misappropriation of the word conservative. We’ve completely negated the original meanings of these words in the political spectrum. Its just such a shame to see beautiful words become the casulties of our ignorance.

I try to avoid using the “left wing/right wing” anology so common in our politics. I prefer a political compass view of the landscape, though any attempt at an ontological model of social politics will fall short of completely expressing the true nature and complexities of the situation. Nevertheless, that is no excuse for hijacking the language. There are other perfectly good words to use.