**Teabagger ** seconded, and I’ll raise you a Faux News.
(however, rereading the OP, I wouldn’t quite say “brands the user an idiot”, just “forfeits the debate” or “not trying to be serious”)
As for Obamacare… that one used to bug me a little, until they actually passed the thing. If it makes it through the courts, one day everyone will use a term the opposition created as an attack to describe something generations might benefit from. Like if Medicare had been coined Johnsoncare* in an attempt to defeat it, and everyone today still used that to refer to a basic service we now consider untouchable.
Generally, when someone says they are against abortion, they mean they feel it should be outlawed. I suppose that means that those who are merely against the concept but still think it should exist as a choice need to come up with another term, since the radicals seem to have co-opted “against” and “anti”.
That is always clear - pro-choice is merely that, despite what propaganda the antis try to put out.
Because that is handing your opponents a rhetorical advantage, since they can and will give themselves names designed to make them sound better than they are. Like “pro-life”, which is among other things an implicit accusation that their opponents are murderers. Or Bolshevik - it probably wasn’t smart for their opponents to go along with calling them by a word meaning “the majority party”.
And if name calling works - and it often does - why not use it? Especially if the other side is already doing so; there’s nothing noble about being defeated because you are being too over-polite to even call your enemies names. As long as you are using honest accusations there’s nothing particularly wrong with calling other people names; and often refusing to call people names is wrong since you are then letting them paper over their misdeeds.
I have never had any problem with “Islamofascist,” when discussing the religion-backed collectivism common amongst middle-eastern governments and groups.
Why do I get the feeling that certain people in this thread are frantically scouring each others past posts to identify which terms their political nemesis is most fond of using?
Personally, I tend to find some version of the sentiment “There is no point listening to politicians because they always lie” a pretty reliable marker for vacuous political discussion.
As opposed to the correct name of the Democratic Party. You see it once in a while as an honest mistake, but it usually isn’t. G. W. Bush said “the Democrat Party” a lot during his tenure, and when Democrats complained that this was incorrect, Republicans started using it more often to needle them. “Democrat Party” and the associated complaints are both very embarrassing.
Sorry, BLD, but I’m adding “Chimpy” to the list, right next to “Shrub” (unless we’re listing them alphabetically of course). I had no love for the man but there was enough to criticize without resorting to cheap namecalling.
Likewise there are also loads of “creative” versions of Barack Obama’s name currently in circulation including “NObama”, “Zero” and “Barry” (which, yes I know, he used to call himself but I’ve never seen anyone use it in earnest who was not intending to be derogatory).
Oh, if only the OP could have created a thread in which you yourself could have added other relevant terms to the list…too late now, I guess…
