word trends – Pages of Fun https://robertgomez.org Robert Wm. Gomez's Website Tue, 29 Sep 2020 18:42:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://robertgomez.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/cropped-garland_logo-32x32.png word trends – Pages of Fun https://robertgomez.org 32 32 Political Word Trends https://robertgomez.org/blog/2016/09/28/political-word-trends/ Wed, 28 Sep 2016 18:42:16 +0000 https://robertgomez.org/?p=2903 The current presidential election cycle has made Facebook insufferable these days. As the various screeds flow across my feed from people who would normally be reasonable friends, I am noticing what I am calling, “political word trends.” Out-of-the-blue people start using the exact same words to describe something with which they have a political beef. I know this is essentially the same thing as talking points (like when every Democratic operative on the planet described Hillary “powering through” her illness), but what I am seeing is just a little more subtle.

I first noticed this when, over the course of a few unrelated discussion threads, libertarianism came up and, in addition to the usual “they hate firemen” arguments, someone would refer to libertarians as “children.” Maybe there was a huge write up in The Nation that used this term? I don’t know. It just seemed odd that it suddenly appeared 3 or 4 times without any prompting. Next, I began to hear the term “ghouls” used over and over to describe pro-gun advocates. Again, maybe John Oliver had a witty diatribe about these “ghouls” but this seemed weirdly coincidental to me. Or maybe I’m just jealous that I am not being invited to all the hip parties. Instead I sulk at home with like a ghoulish child. I will keep my eyes open for more. Stay tuned.

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