liberal

Benjamin Barrett gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM
Thu Nov 17 21:18:02 UTC 2011


In the citation given, it seems to me the modern use of "liberal" is being used here (simply meaning leftist politics).

In the wider context of the book, perhaps that is clarified more, or perhaps the author is intentionally utilizing both meanings of the word.

With that short citation, there is no way I would read anything more into it than "leftist" (though as I noted earlier, the older meaning is not in my vocabulary).

BB

On Nov 17, 2011, at 12:54 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> Personally, I've never before seen or heard "take" used with "tactics."
>
> And what the authors seem to mean is that King O will do whatever he
> and Princess Nancy can get away with to "ensure perpetual liberal
> rule."
>
> Not to get into a Humpty-style discussion where words mean whatever,
> but to Tea Party theorists - apparently - "liberals" wish to use the
> fascist-communist power of the oppressive bully pulpit to force
> liberty-loving Americans into doing whatever King O and his liberal
> successors want in their Marxist campaign to replace religion, private
> enterprise, laissez-faire, and gun ownership with character-busting,
> nanny-state health-care slavery, legal abortions, coddling of
> illegal-alien felons, enforced Darwinian teachings and worse. Forever.
>
> Obviously bad.
>
> BUT Republican (actually "conservative"*) gerrymandering would *not*
> ensure perpetual GOP (as wonderful as that would be). Citizens could
> still vote for anyone they want. No one could stop those gerrymandered
> districts from going liberal at the drop of a hat. GOP gerrymandering,
> unlike Wilsonian-Nazi liberalism, does not work to undermine free will
> or right reason.
>
> So it's OK.
>
> * which now - as often as not - means "reactionary populist."
>
> JL
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 2:31 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>>
>> Whoops--I suppose "used" works with "tactics." BB
>>
>> On Nov 17, 2011, at 11:05 AM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>
>>> Also, what verb goes with "tactics"? "Take" seems to work, along the lines of "take measures." The OED is silent on the matter.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Nov 17, 2011, at 10:38 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>
>>>> Old news to many, but here's an unusually clear-cut ex. of the orig.
>>>> tendentious use of "liberal" to mean "authoritarian; state-socialist":
>>>>
>>>> 2011 _Edward H. Hamilton Bookseller Co. Bargain Books_  (Oct. 28)
>>>> [catalogue] 8: The authors identify and discuss more than twenty
>>>> tactics taken [sic] by the Obama administration to restructure the
>>>> country and ensure perpetual liberal rule...such as changing voting
>>>> laws, politicizing the census, destroying talk radio, and seeking to
>>>> make millions of illegal aliens into voting citizens.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list