What’s Old Is New Again—Only the Words Have Changed

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by Glenn R. Geist

Nineteenth-Century cynic Ambrose Bierce began to publish his “Devil’s Dictionary” in serial but desultory form beginning in 1881.  In 1906 it was published posthumously as The Cynic’s Word Book. A long time ago, true, and still the country is drowning in cynicism and turmoil. Mister, we could use a man like Mister Bierce again.

It may be all too easy today and we’re all doing it at some level because we’re all published to some degree on Social media. Who hasn’t noticed that words like “patriot” today mean you’re a gun owner – particularly a hostile and belligerent one. And of course treasonous and anti-Trump are synonymous.

Don’t even ask what Liberal means to a Trump promoter.  But it’s not just old words with new and shifty meanings. It’s also memes, and buzzwords and phrases every bit as political as they were in the days when America was great, the cemeteries were overflowing, trees were bearing strange fruit and we were all at each other’s throats.

The Cynic’s Word Book of today is evolving and expanding, but some things remain the same. Just as demonstrators for civil rights were in the 50’s and 60’s, current demonstrators are Paid Outside Agitators who don’t really represent popular sentiment.  The men and women of today’s marches and demonstrations and rallies are still paid and outside.

Even victims of real, actual malicious violence are also paid actors whether dead or dismembered or bleeding on the ground. The demonstrations that represent two thirds or three-quarters of America have always been dismissed as paid too. In the 60’s they got checks from Moscow or Beijing – today it’s from the Deep State, George Soros, Crooked Hillary and for all we know, (ask Alex Jones) Martians. Voters? They’re paid too and we’ve paid to prove they are even when they aren’t.

Of course, the people telling you this often are getting checks from Moscow, but we won’t go there in the interest of space.

So it’s not surprising that all that protest against Quack Judge Kavanaugh is being written off as more paid outside agitators, even though they represent a majority of Americans. After all, as the fact-checkers readily admit, organizers who are on one payroll or another do show up with trunks full of signs and busloads of volunteers, so again we can just write it off the way we wrote off Martin Luther King and all the folks that came down from the North to protest Jim Crow and segregation. Paid outside agitators, fake news, fake blood. If .01% of protest becomes violent, that means 100% unless we sponsored it and in that case, it never happened – fake news and some Nazi’s are nice guys.

New words in old dictionaries, I guess, behind the slippery words and memes and talking points are the same old greed and malice and racism and religious and corporate lust.  These days even some deliberate and poisonous interference comes from foreign enemies. Same old lies and distractions and evasions and appeals to ignorance and hate and greed and nativism and racism. Only the words have changed to soothe the stupid and protect the guilty.

About Post Author

Glenn Geist

Glenn Geist lives in South Florida and wastes most of his time boating, writing, complaining and talking on the radio
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Glenn R. Geist
5 years ago

I saw a a “Make America Less Orwellian Again” hat last week.

Bill Formby
5 years ago

Good post Glenn. I keep waiting for the Trump camp to start chanting “To resist is futile”!!

Glenn R. Geist
5 years ago

I hope not, but I know what you mean

Abe72
5 years ago

The democrats definitely don’t learn from history or the words spoken last election or the one before that, because they keep losing, as they will this cycle. Watch it happen.

5 years ago

[…] MadMikesAmerica, Glenn Geist compiles a list of how conservatives are giving to ordinary words increasingly weird definitions. […]

Admin
5 years ago

History is simply repeating itself, as it has done since time immemorial. It’s a lot like the weather in that respect, while it changes, it doesn’t really because it runs in cycles. There are periods of bad weather, and good weather, just like there are periods of bad history and good history. We in the US are in a period of bad history, meaning it’s raining like hell and no one has an umbrella. In addition, all the shelters, except those for the privileged, are closed.

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