this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2024
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Here's an example from me

If you want to de-normalize a nation's state/government, call them

spoilera regime


Other examples include: hospital --> loony bin

Edit: the more I think about it, the more I realize dysphemism are insults?

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 7 months ago (2 children)

call social programs 'entitlements'.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 7 months ago (1 children)

And it's not wrong to call them that. We are entitled to social programs that we paid into. The issue is the popularity of people saying that some are "entitled" instead of "self-entitled".

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I don't disagree (that we should get what we paid for), but I think that term is meant to imply that beneficiaries of these programs are spoiled brats. Its idiotic, but then so is our politics. The distinction between 'entitled' and 'self-entitled' I think is way too fine a point for our national discourse.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

I like the term β€œearned benefits” for things like Social Security that you have to pay into.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago

Calling refugees "immigrants"

Calling making an effort to be inclusive with people marginalised in some way, "woke"

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"Booze-hound" to mean someone with an alcohol addiction

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

and someone who is addicted to drugs is sometimes called a "junkie".

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

they usually just use my first name

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Tbf, western tourists kinda be like that tho...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Back when I was in high school, I remember people calling introverts and goths "freaks" (i.e. people who are outside the "norm".)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I tell my friends that Asperger's is a super power and that the word, "normies" is an insult.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I've aways assumed "normie" was an insult. But I might be over sensitive to such things, becaise "cis" also sounds like an insult to me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

A lesbian friend was the first person to call me cis. I had no idea what it meant. Now that I understand I have embraced the term to make clear how I see myself. I am a cis male.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Some people call a therapist a "shrink".

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There are a number of dysphemisms that are used to signify a person displaying symptoms of mental illness:

  • crazy

  • whack job (or whacko)

  • lunatic

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

And I've heard someone with a physical disability is called (cringe) a "gimp". Ugh.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

"Socialism turns out to work pretty well and is beating our ass" --> β€œNow, no one β€” certainly not me β€” is discounting the power of markets,” Sullivan noted at the time. β€œBut in the name of oversimplified market efficiency, a large non-market economy had been integrated into the international economic order in a way that posed considerable challenges.”

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

β€œNow, no one β€” certainly not me β€” is discounting the power of markets,” Sullivan noted at the time. β€œBut in the name of oversimplified market efficiency, a large non-market economy had been integrated into the international economic order in a way that posed considerable challenges.”

"Despite the best that has been done by everyone [...] the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage,"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Getting "dumped" (for being on the non-consenting side of a break up.)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)
  • Motorcycle riders : temporary Australians; or meat crayons
  • Mental hospital : Napoleon factory (credit to Robert Heinlein)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

meat crayons

Now, that's a colorful right there

Mental hospital : Napoleon factory (credit to Robert Heinlein)

Why wouldn't we want more Napoleons tho?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Relevant to your second example, a lot of people here tend to call therapists "paid friends".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Popularism seems to just mean offering something actually appealing to the electorate.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Populism typically means playing to the appetites of the electorate without any intent to actually benefit them. Empty promises are the heart of it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah but it's used for things like Bernie wanting universal health care or Corbyn renationalising the railways. Which would benefit people.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

True enough. It's often used wrong as a way to smear good-faith attempts to actually govern as impractical or insincere.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Populism is only one kind of demagoguery.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What's the other?

I mean come on, demagoguery and populism shouldn't be subsects of each other... they practically are synonymous, but one has a more neutral connotation...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They're both negative. Scapegoating an outgroup is another form of demagoguery, so is decrying experienced political institutions as corrupt while claiming to be a reformer.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

They’re both negative. Scapegoating an outgroup is another form of demagoguery, so is decrying experienced political institutions as corrupt while claiming to be a reformer.

Pardon me if I find this confusing but this seems to be case of "There's actually zero difference between bad and good things." without context...

Have you fully thought through your words to type this out? πŸ˜”

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

How are any of what I listed good things?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

decrying experienced political institutions as corrupt while claiming to be a reformer.

Someone can just see a theoretical event happening like that and just write and TITLE the news as:

Man leads a pro-democracy movement against corrupt one-party-rule and its institutions...

That being said, scapegoating an outgroup is indeed a demagoguery...

Do you take me for bad-faith arguer?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No, I just think we're having difficulty understanding each other. Or rather, I know I'm not understanding you and thus can't tell whether you're understanding me.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

Well, ykw, agree to disagree... I'll kill the convo right here, I'm sorry...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Identity politics is another culprit

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Kick the bucket for die

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Chitown for Chicago.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

So-so no Frieren (I actually think it's goated, btw)

You'll see a lot of dysphemisms in the 2____4u communities as well.