Political Jargon, Slang and Phrases (1 Viewer)

Rather than use polls to determine public sentiment, politicians frequently fall back on the tried and true method of deliberately creating a buzz and watching the result.

Example: The mayor sent up a trial balloon by mentioning to his aide to mention to a reporter that the town might consider cancelling the Mardi Gras parade due to budget constraints for security measures.

trial balloon
(noun)

An idea suggested by a politician in order to observe the reaction. If public reaction is favorable, the politician pursues the idea and takes full credit.
The term originates with the testing of the first hot air balloons in the late 18th century. Unmanned balloons were sent up into the atmosphere to determine if they were safe for human travel.

One from the OED today for you:

RobF said:

One from the OED today for you:

Click to expand...

Cool! That's a new one on me. I checked the etymology and it's a term developed by a "free market" think tank.
Here's a take from a British perspective:

Overton Window
noun

You will usually hear the Overton window used in relation to the centre ground, and whether a certain party has managed to shift it to the left or right. For example, some argue that Ukip has shifted the Overton window to the right, by making room for the main parties to formulate harsher policies on immigration than the UK has previously experienced.

Its originator was Joseph P Overton, a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He developed the theory in the mid-Nineties.

What is the Overton window?

The Overton window is a political theory that refers to the range (or window) of policies that the public will accept. The idea is that any policy falling outside the Overton window is out of step with public opinion and the current political climate, and formulated to try and shift the Overton...

www.newstatesman.com

The old school term for mass posting of messages on the Internet or through emails was called "spamming."
In its policy, Twitter has given us a new term for the old practice.

Example: The mayor's campaign performed acts of platform manipulation, paying hundreds of temporary employees $2,500 per month to pump out campaign messages through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

platform manipulation
verb

Platform manipulation can take many forms and our rules are intended to address a wide range of prohibited behavior, including:

• commercially-motivated spam, that typically aims to drive traffic or attention from a conversation on Twitter to accounts, websites, products, services, or initiatives;
• inauthentic engagements, that attempt to make accounts or content appear more popular or active than they are; and
• coordinated activity, that attempts to artificially influence conversations through the use of multiple accounts, fake accounts, automation and/or scripting.

Political groups frequently tout the idea that theirs is a "grass roots" organization. This is entirely in keeping with the very essence of the American experience - the people banding together of their own accord of their own volition. Modern political movements seldom arise from such beginnings. More often, they receive a little help.

Example: The councilman said the energy company engaged in astroturfing by hiring actors to attend hearing about the new power plant.

Astroturfing
noun

An artificially-manufactured political movement designed to give the appearance of grass roots activism.
Campaigns & Elections magazine defined astroturf as a “grassroots program that involves the instant manufacturing of public support for a point of view in which either uninformed activists are recruited or means of deception are used to recruit them.”

Unlike natural grassroots campaigns which are people-rich and money-poor, an astroturf campaign tends to be the opposiite, well-funded but with little actual support from voters.

Every year, the Internet causes us to add ever more words to every facet of society.

Example: Proudly describing herself as a clicktivist, Julie went from website to website, expressing her support for animal rights issues.

clicktivism
noun

The activity of supporting a political or social cause by using the Internet to carry out actions that are thought to require little effort or time.

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/clicktivism

It's important to read news from diverse sources. With today's choices and political polarization, we sometimes compartmentalize ourselves too much for our own good.

Example: Julie failed to realize that her workplace at a liberal think tank in Boston was an echo chamber, so the conservative victory came as a complete surprise to her.

echo chamber
noun

In politics, ideas and beliefs are reinforced and amplified in a repetitive way inside some type of enclosed system. Things are repeated and repeated once more and other ideas or opposing views are simply ignored or disallowed. To put it simply, if something is repeated enough times to like-minded people then those people will believe it to be true.

There's a tendency to use back-handed insults to dismiss political adversaries. Frequently this manifests itself as a scientific or pseudo-scientific term being used as a label to dismiss someone else's opinion.

Example: John said Tim's posts about the campaign exhibited characteristics of the Dunning Kruger Principle, even though the John had never actually met Tim.

Dunning-Kruger
noun

Dunning-Kruger is an interesting psychological principle that explains that incompetent people rarely recognize that they’re incompetent. Instead, the worse they are at something the more greatly they are likely to overestimate themselves and their abilities.

Maybe you should do 'subtweet' next...

Today's word is done by special request! The Twitterverse sometimes takes on the characteristics of pop culture. Harry Potter had "he who shall not be named." Similarly, Twitter users often revert to not mentioning a person's name for various reasons.

Example: "We didn't include Smith's Twitter handle, but that didn't stop Smith from seeing the post, getting mad, and firing off a subtweet of his own."

sub·tweet
noun
informal
noun: subtweet; plural noun: subtweets; noun: sub-tweet; plural noun: sub-tweets

1. (on the social media application Twitter) a post that refers to a particular user without directly mentioning them, typically as a form of furtive mockery or criticism.

Today's word is from an earlier age! Use this when you want to sound highly intelligent, possibly over-educated, and definitely arcane.

Example: “Your kakistocracy is collapsing after its lamentable journey.” CIA director John O. Brennan tweeted at President Trump.



Kakistocracy
noun

: government by the worst people

Today's term is most often used and associated with a single racial group, but it actually encompasses any group that views itself as superior to others.

Example: The man was a supremacist in every sense of the word and his speeches were filled with references to the glories of Rome.

supremacist
noun


su·prem·a·cist | \ sə-ˈpre-mə-sist , sü- \
Definition of supremacist

1 : an advocate or adherent of group supremacy

: a person who believes that one group of people is better than all other groups and should have control over them

At the 1924 Democratic Convention, it took 103 rounds of voting to nominate John Davis as the candidate.
The possibility that this could ever occur again seemed remote . . . until now.

Example: It was clear to everyone that no candidate would reach the mark and a brokered convention was inevitable.

brokered convention
noun

A brokered convention occurs when none of the presidential candidates enters their party’s national convention having won enough delegates during the primaries and caucuses to secure the nomination.

Today we're going to explore an Arabic term that's similar to several English words combined.

Example: As the nephew of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Yassir Arafat frequently used wasta to get the "right people" hired for construction work in Gaza.

wasta
(noun)

Wasta or wasata (Arabic: واسِطة wāsiṭah) is an Arabic word that loosely translates into nepotism, 'clout' or 'who you know'. It refers to using one’s connections and/or influence to get things done, including government transactions such as the quick renewal of a passport, waiving of traffic fines, and getting hired for or promoted in a job.

Also: sociolismo in Cuba; blat in Russia; guanxi in Chinese and Vetternwirtschaft in German, protektzia in Israeli slang, un pituto in Chilean Spanish, In Brazilian-Portuguese it is referred to as "pistolão", "QI" (Quem Indica, or Who Indicates), or in the slang "peixada", "Pidi Padu" in Malayalam, "arka" or "destek" in Turkish, "plecy" in Polish, "štela" in Bosnian.

During the 17th and 18th Centuries in America, it was entirely common and perfectly legal and proper to pay someone to serve in the armed forces on your behalf. Such arrangements faded into history with the 20th Century, replaced by another mechanism.

If you're already in government service, you can't be drafted, so this gave rise to people who held office to avoid the draft. Yes, there's a word for that! No, not "draft dodger." That term came later!

"In every place where there was red tape, wherever there was a comfortable requisitioned motor car to drive, or a Red Cross ambulance to pilot, guards to furnish, reports to write or to carry behind the lines, sick to help, funds to raise, the embusqués swarmed during the first three months of the war." - The Evening Star (Washington DC), 1 Dec. 1914

Embusqué
(noun)

Definition: a person seeking to avoid military service (as by working in a government office)

About the Word:
It seems safe to make the assumption that for as long as there has been military service there have been people trying to avoid it. Considering this, a word to describe such a person came into the English language rather late; embusqué makes its earliest appearance in 1914, during the First World War. It comes from the French ((s')embusquer, meaning 'to lie in ambush'), although in the 19th century the French were also using the word to describe a soldier who was removed from military duty.

Commander-in-chief is a draft-dodger

Recently, a Trump supporter wrote a letter listing 10 reasons to support President Donald Trump, one of which called him a patriot. But is he really?

the-journal.com

What was once speculation about how a future despotic government could control its population through use of technology, shaming, shunning and denial of human rights has become a reality in large Chinese cities today with the help of information gathered by social media corporations.

In the 1990s, one of my daughters got called to the office for passing around a "slam book" with negative comments about other kids. These days, it's all done on the Internet.

Example: "The kids used the social scoring system to publicly shame and harass other students to the point that two of them committed suicide."

social scoring
a.k.a. your social score, influencer
The act of rating a person's level of influence based on evaluating one's followers, friends, and postings on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Social Justice Warrior/Crusader
(noun)

Example: John, the board's social justice warrior, found the picture of the Indian maiden on the butter package to be a repulsive expression of white supremacy with sexual overtones.

Social justice warrior is an often mocking term for one who is seen as overly progressive or left-wing. It's often abbreviated as SJW.


Justice crusaders are often found debating about political and social issues regarding inequality. Many tend to find racist, sexist, or other discriminatory intentions in places that did not originally intend to offend anyone by any means. They also commonly exaggerate the offense or take certain statements a bit too seriously. Unless you are also a justice crusader, most people find justice crusaders annoying.

A number of them are also very hypocritical. Justice crusaders are usually members of a minority, and they tend to target and criticize white people for their "white privilege" or "inability to understand." They do not realize that this in itself is discrimination; for they judge white people harder than other races and cultures. If you tell them this though, they will probably deny it; they defend themselves quickly and are usually angered easily. Trying to talk sense into them is difficult.