A Liberal Use of Words

Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1932, redefined the word liberalism. Prior to 1932, liberalism meant “a belief in individual liberty.” He gave the word a new meaning: “a belief in paternalistic government and trading individual liberty for state-sponsored security” by redefining what he called “the forgotten man.”

In 1932, FDR talked about helping someone he called “the forgotten man.” This phrase came from a book that had been written decades earlier by William Graham Sumner. However, Roosevelt redefined Sumner’s definition of “the forgotten man.” Sumner defines “the forgotten man” in this way: Jim and Frank want to help Sally, so they team up and pass a law that coerces John to co-fund their favorite project to help Sally. In this scenario, Sumner defines the forgotten man as John, who is coerced to co-fund someone else’s project. He is the man who works, prays, and pays his own bills and is never considered by the likes of Jim and Frank. FDR defined Sally as “the forgotten man,” redefining the original concept. In FDR’s scenario, Jim and Frank were Roosevelt himself, and other like-minded people. The vast majority of American citizens became those who were coerced into co-funding Roosevelt’s pet projects.

One problem with American politics today comes from a redefinition of the political spectrum. Take, for example, the word “liberal.” Liberal, in the classical sense, means a “hands off”, or laissez-faire, policy. The United States is an example of a “liberal democracy.” America was founded on the idea that government was to play a minimal role in the affairs of society and the economy, that the job of the government was not to provide direction for society or the economy, but simply to maintain a “free environment” were the public could conduct themselves as they so chose, as long as they didn’t “infringe” on the “rights” of others. This is the classical concept of “liberalism,” the idea of a laissez-faire approach to both economic and social policy. But …

Liberal Tactics 

One of the tactics most used by liberals, who do not have an argument to support their failed policies, is to redefine the meanings of words. Liberals (or, as they now like to be called, progressives) have introduced an era of political correctness so as to offend no one, a rewriting of language and history to ensure that words and phrases that offend certain special interests are redefined or excluded from the vocabulary of those progressives and liberals. You will notice this redefining of the language whenever you read liberal publications or watch liberal broadcasts of the evening news. 

Prolific readers may recognize the term “Newspeak,” from he George Orwell novel 1984 about an oppressive socialist world. Socialists, Marxists, and liberals want to, need to redefine words. They may be morally bankrupt, but they are smart enough to realize that most people will not accept their distorted worldview. So they must redefine their bad ideas into good ones, and redefine good and practical terms into bad ones. 

The pattern has been for liberals to redefine all political debate to the point that anything which does not conform to their agenda is instantly characterized as “rancor,” “extremism,” or “hate.” While liberals have engaged in such tactics for many years, the degree to which it is currently done has grown in recent years. The Tea Party’s devotion to fiscal sanity is “draconian” or “mean spirited.” Concern for the moral preservation and restoration of the nation and its foundational institutions including traditionally defined marriage, is “homophobic” or “hateful.” Protection of the unborn is “sexist” or “anti-woman.” Recognition of the cultural and spiritual roots of the nation, and their critical importance to its future are “religious intolerance” or “xenophobia.” Yet Congresswoman Maxine Waters is called “mainstream” by the MSM. 

Redefinition of Words 

With the redefinition of words in mind, let’s examine some words that liberals (progressives) have redefined. I am sure that you can add a few more.

• Being Open Minded: To a liberal, this has nothing at all to do with seriously considering other people's ideas. To the contrary, liberals define being "open-minded" as agreeing with them. What could be more close-minded than assuming that not only are you right, but that you don't even need to consider another viewpoint because anyone who disagrees must be evil? 
• Charity: Contributing your own money or time to a good cause is charity. Liberals view themselves as charitable if they take someone else's tax dollars and give it away to people they hope will vote for them in return. At a minimum, they should at least credit the taxpayers who paid for the money they gave away for the charity, although it's not really charity if it's involuntary. Of course, there's nothing charitable about asking someone else to sacrifice for your gain, which could actually be better described as selfish.
• Discrimination: a word that has lost meaning in the progressive era from over use by the MSM and this administration. To liberals discrimination means not giving equal stuff to members of minorities, who should have whatever they want, and everyone else must pay for those wants.
• Diversity: a blend of several unique items coexisting, such as a diversified stock portfolio. What liberals mean by "diversity" is that they want a broad range of people from different races, colors, and creeds who have identical political views. A black or Hispanic conservative doesn't contribute to "diversity" in liberal eyes because he actually has diverse views. Incredible role models for women like Sarah Palin can't be feminists to liberals because she doesn't share the same liberal beliefs as sexist pigs like Anthony Weiner and Bill Maher. How can you have any meaningful "diversity" when everyone has to think the same way?
• Equality: an idea which states that each member of a given group has equal value or equal authority. To liberals it means forced equal outcomes regardless of skill, experience, or effort, as in racial quotas.
• Fairness: In all fairness, I must admit that fairness is an arbitrary concept. So, you could make the argument that no one could get "fairness" wrong. Still, liberals do because they don't make any effort to actually "be fair." As a practical matter, liberals define "fairness" as taking as much as possible from people who they don't think are going to vote for them and giving it to people who may vote for them in return for their ill gotten largesse. Certainly conservatives, libertarians, and moderates might disagree about how much money to take from the wealthy to redistribute to the poor or how to help the disadvantaged, but the only liberal answer to the question, "How much is enough?" is "more." 
• Greed: To a liberal, believing that you pay too much in taxes or even opposing paying more in taxes is greedy. In actuality, wanting to loot as much money as possible that someone else has earned to use for your own purposes, which is what liberals do, is a much better example of greed. 
• Hate: Liberals often define simple disagreement with them on issues like gay marriage, tax rates, or abortion as hatred. No matter how well a position is explained, or the logical underpinnings behind it, it's chalked up to hate. Meanwhile, the angriest, most vicious, most hateful people in all of politics are liberals railing against what they say is "hatred." This irony is completely lost on the Left. 
• Investment: Actual investments involve putting money or resources into a project in hopes that they will appreciate in value. Liberals skip the second half of that equation. To them, an "investment" is taking someone else's tax dollars and putting it into a project that liberals approve of and whether a profit is made or lost is so irrelevant that they typically don't even bother to measure the results.
• Patriotism: Liberals love America the way a wife beater loves his spouse. That's why they're always beating up the country "for its own good." Doesn't the country understand that liberals have to hit it in the mouth because they LOVE IT SO MUCH?!?!? Of course, the conventional definition of patriotism, which is loving your country and wishing it well, isn't one that liberals can wrap their heads around.  
• Progressive: A “progressive” focuses on using government power to make institutions play by a set of rules. But liberals want to define “the rules.” Are you beginning to see how subtle liberals can be? Does the EPA come to mind?
• Prejudice: “Prejudice” means literally to pre-judge. But liberals cannot stop there – they add racial or class or sex or … so as to fit their agenda and change the meaning of the word.
• Racist: The MSM and current administration have used this word so much that the word has lost relevance in any honest debate. Liberals start with the presumption that only white people who don't belong to the Democratic Party can be racist. So, for example, even if Jeremiah Wright can make it clear that he hates white people because of their skin color or if liberals take an explicitly racist political position, like suggesting that black people are too stupid and incompetent to get identification to vote, they can't be racist. White Republicans, on the other hand, are generally assumed to be racist by default, no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary.
• Rainbow: a “rainbow” is literally a circular color spectrum appearing in the sky due to the result of refraction and multiple reflections of sunlight in droplets of water. Liberals have redefined the word as a symbol of homosexuality. It has also been redefined and used by left-wing political pressure groups to refer to their agenda of multiculturalism. The word has also been mis-used by liberals as a symbol of “diversity.” 
• Tolerance: In a free, open, and pluralistic society, there are all sorts of behaviors that we may have to tolerate, even though we don't approve of those activities. Liberals don't get this distinction. For one thing, they don't understand the difference between tolerance and acceptance. They also don't extend any of the tolerance they're agitating for to people who disagree with them. Liberals silence people who disagree with them at every opportunity which is, dare we say it, an extremely intolerant way to behave.
• Tyranny: tyranny literally means oppressive power exerted by government. This word is not present in the progressive liberal vocabulary.
• Union Dues: to liberals, union dues means voluntary contributions from individuals who are happy to belong to a union and agree with all actions the union takes. In actuality, it is money coerced from union members as a condition of employment. 

Liberal ideologues redefine words to help advance a religious, political, environmental, scientific or social agenda. Never mind that to do so is to pervert the truth. Their motto is "The end justifies the means" or to be more precise: Do whatever it is you must in order to get the result you want, regardless of the methods used. "It does not matter whether these methods are legal or illegal, fair or foul, kind or cruel, truth or lies, democratic or dictatorial, good or evil."

 "The first reaction to truth is hatred." — Tertullian