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Inventing Dirty Words

Nobody loves a good cuss word as much as I do, but I prefer to stick to the standard vocabulary. Some words really cross the line, like racial epithets, because they identify a group of people with a label that, by design, carries a negative connotation. Take that one step further, put a cuss in front of an epithet, incorporate a little spit with its delivery, and you've clearly demonstrated your low opinion of that stereotype.

What's interesting is how words with a positive meaning can be redefined as being negative, simply by the tone of delivery and by who is saying it. If you heard someone say, "look at those low-down Red Cross volunteers", you'd surely wonder what the heck they meant by that. Or how about. "Look at that good-for-nothing hospice nurse with her gentle smile and compassion for the dying. She makes me sick". How about this one. "Those pathetic Liberals."

Now that last one makes you pause for a second. What was the first image that popped into your mind when you heard the word Liberal? Depending on your point of view, it could be almost anything. Perhaps you had this image of athiests, gay people, vegans, hippies, pot-smokers, communists, women who make their own clothes, hybrid car owners, people standing in a food stamp line, coddlers and whiners,... maybe even terrorist symapthizers. Where did that image come from? Is that what the word Liberal actually means? If someone asked you if you were a Liberal, would you say "absolutely not!"? Is that really true, that you're not a Liberal? Let's dwell on that last one for a minute.

A quick look at the dictionary give some very clear definitions of what the word Liberal means.

1. Free from prejudice or bigotry.

2. Characterized by generosity and willingness to give.

3. Favorable to representational forms of government rather than aristocracies and monarchies

4. Favorable to the concepts of the maximum individual freedom possible, especially as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties.

Are you in agreement with any of these things? Or, is there even one of these definitions you are diametrically opposed to? Just for a minute, forget about the look on Ann Coulter's face when she says the word Liberal and think about what the word actually means. By definition now, could you call yourself an American, a Christian, even a "good person", if you are not, by definition, a Liberal?

We've had the artificially negative connotation commonly associated with the word Liberal so drilled into us by the gasbag commentators out there that approximately half the population in this country could not face the prospect that they are one. And yet, look what the word really means. It's an actual word, in English, and it's in the dictionary. Look it up.

If you hate gay people, black people, white people, people from Boston, poor people, whoever, call them as you see them. Then see how many people actually still want to associate with you. Then, when you find them, go start your own country. That'll be easy because you won't need much space, perhaps something the size of a golf course.