From: Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
heck. I don't care about toxicity. It's accuracy that I care about. Also, communication. Do you think most people in the country would agree that the US government is "fascist"?
No. But then just a year ago Gallup reported that 78 percent of Americans believe in angels. Americans tend to not see things that do exist and to see things that don't exist -- warning signs of a tenuous grasp of reality. I don't think it does much from a communications standpoint to just go along with the public's state of denial and its fanciful view of America's global benevolence.
Carl
On 4/14/05, Carl Remick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >From: Carrol Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > >Jim Devine wrote: > > > > > > > > > > BTW, I think that one reason why the left has sputtered is that some > > > people jump at the Nazi or fascist analogy. It encourages the "anyone > > > but Bush" attitude, among other things. > > > >Yes. About the only real political result of crying "fascist" is to > >bolster the Democratic Party -- and probably increase the probability of > >non-fascist forms of tyranny - including forms that haven't been > >invented yet. > > How vexing that "Nazi/fascist" is too toxic a term to use in any > contemporary connection -- even, or especially, when appropriate. I guess > we should take a cue from the ancient Hebrews who thought God's name too > holy to say aloud and referred to the Almighty via the vowel-less, > unpronounceable Tetragrammaton of YHWH or JHVH. Nazi/fascist might thus be > rendered NZFSCST to make it less incendiary and more acceptable to the > refined sensibilities of the US public ;-) > > Carl >
-- Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://myweb.lmu.edu/jdevine
