If you were directed to this page by clicking on a word in a post, scroll down to find that word, they are alphabetized. These are my definitions, unless otherwise noted. They may or may not agree with some source that you refer to. They are true nonetheless.
a priori: Latin, "prior to" means to refer to an argument made without a logical basis, that is without evidence or analysis. Can be neutral in it's connotation. You accept something to be true regardless of having investigated it, simply because it is convenient or comfortable to do so.
ad hominem: Latin, "to the man." Arguing against the personality in a debate, rather than arguing the merits or problems of the issue. A logical fallacy in which an assertion or premise is supposedly refuted, because the opposing party doesn't like the character of the party making the assertion. (e.g. "You don't want there to be a minimum wage because you're a racist!") Also see "non-sequitur."
Analysis: In the mainstream media; this is what they call it when they are trying to tell you that this is how you should understand what the news really means, often in spite of how it plainly seems.
Bipartisan: This is when the Republicans cave in on principles and screw the American people along with the leftist democrats.
Black Hole Stupid: This is the superlative form of stupidity. It is based on the concept that a black hole is a collapsed star which has such a density of gravity that not even light can escape its gravitational field once it gets close enough to the event horizon. Black hole stupid means that any intelligent thought or concept that comes close to the mind of a "drone" get's sucked in and disappears, having no effect whatsoever on it's intended target.
Capitalism: A made up word by Karl Marx for maintaining a straw man for communists. What follows is a partial quote from Wikipedia. "There is no consensus on the precise definition of capitalism, nor how the term should be used as an analytical category. There is, however, little controversy that private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit in a market, and prices and wages are elements of capitalism. There are a variety of historical cases to which the designation is applied, varying in time, geography, politics and culture."
Cattle Conspiracy: An open conspiracy in the sense that very few people, even the greatest champions of the beliefs involved, understand the end game, and they certainly are not trying to be secretive about it. Some may call it, "herd mentality." Repeat something long and loud enough, and if it seems good and seems believable, the crowd will accept it as truth. After a while, anyone who questions the belief will seem like a kook, out of the mainstream, an extremist. Facts and logic are the first victims. Then simple pragmatism is thrown out.
Cognitive Dissonance: A condition of the mind in which someone claims to believe as true, two concepts or ideas that cannot both be valid, or are mutually exclusive. Often done with religion and politics by way of compartmentalizing in the mind.
Conservative: One who wishes to conserve. In the area of politics, one who wishes to conserve this republic as founded by the men who signed the Declaration of Independence and ratified the original United States Constitution. Wisdom that has been proven to work over several thousand years seems like a good thing to conserve. Most modern people tagged with this moniker bear no resemblance to such a concept. A true conservative may also be seen as one who sees nothing but danger and destruction in the ideas of self-proclaimed "progressives". True conservatives don't reject true progress, we just reject stupid ideas that have already been tried and failed many times in history.
Conservative (adj.): [this entry by Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes]
In twenty-first century America, an adjective used to describe people who express the tiniest scintilla of skepticism about even the most extreme, radical left-wing pursuits. Fifty years ago, it described people who thought segregation might be a good idea. Twenty-five years ago, it described people who had reservations about negotiating with the U.S.S.R. about arms reduction treaties. Ten years ago, it described people who might have been reticent about cheering on President Clinton as if he were some kind of a rock star in a shiny-glittery outfit diving into a mosh pit. It is obvious the term is highly dynamic. This blog predicts that within eighteen months, “conservative” will be used to describe people who believe maybe, just maybe, someone might be qualified to share credit with Al Gore about developing the Internet, electricity, TCP/IP, various medicines, alternating current, the internal combustion engine, the printing press, gunpowder, the English language, the wheel, and fire.
Constitution, The: (Original view) Properly called United States Constitution, or U.S. Constitution. A legally binding document signed near the founding of the United States of America, containing seven main articles and twenty-seven amendments. Adopted on September 17, 1787. What should be the supreme law of the land above any persons or personalities. It's whole purpose was to put all restrictions on the Federal government so as to protect the rights of the individual sovereign States and the people. The document is meant to convey in the simplest terms that the rights of all people are inherent and inviolable. That no government, no committee, no group should ever have the power to deny liberty or infringe on the rights of people for any reason.
Constitution, The: (alternate view) A "living, breathing" document written by a bunch of patriarchal, white male, slave-owners. It should mean whatever enough of us self-anointed elites think it should mean. It should reflect the changing mores and standards of an ever growing society, and since that society often does not understand what is in its own best interests, we will choose the people who will don the black robes and tell you what it means.
Crony Capitalism: credit to Mark Levin for coining the term. Crony Capitalism is a false form of capitalism that denies free markets. It involves large corporations that have enough funds and resources to engage in lobbying and writing laws and buying favors in order to gain unfair advantages over competition and protections from the consumers under the guise of law. This is something that no real conservative endorses.
Deja Moo: hearing the same bullshit as before. Credited to Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority
Democracy: a vile and contemptible form of government which our founding fathers never intended us to be, but which is mistakenly thought of as the American form of government. The founders went to great pains to produce a constitutional republic in order to maintain individual freedom. Democracy is mob rule and ultimately lawlessness. It is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
Discrimination: a determination of value. One should discriminate between that which is good and that which is bad. This word has lost its useful meaning in modern times, much like the word "racist."
Drone: coined by Mark Levin, Esq. People who believe unquestioningly in the ideals and goals of statists, leftists, modern liberals, socialists, communists. They cannot be swayed by intelligent argument or reasoned discourse. They believe in the ideas of the left because it "feels" right to them, and any evidence to the contrary must be dismissed as: "sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, extremist, racist, bigoted" or some combination thereof. Arguing with a drone is like trying to teach a pig to sing.
Epistemology: the study of the origin, nature, methods and limits of human knowledge. It is basically asking the question: "How do you know?" or "How can you be sure that you're right?"
Eschatology: the study of end time, or end-of-the-world prophecy.
Free-market: an economy based on the power of individuals creating goods and services and trading with other free people on the basis of supply and demand, in a fair and honest manner, without the interference of government except where needed to settle disputes via the court system and law enforcement against force or fraud.
Gender: abused word arising out of leftist "newspeak." Gender is supposed to refer to inanimate objects in languages where such objects have a masculine or feminine connotation. Gender should never be used when one is referring to sex. As a man my sex is male, since I am not an inanimate object, I can have no gender.
Intolerance: What the left accuses anyone of being who doesn't agree with their agenda. Leftists don't just want you to tolerate things that are repugnant, abhorrent, perverted, stupid or dangerous, you must embrace and endorse them or you will be branded "intolerant."
Liberal: n. (archaic) another word like racist, in that its meaning can be different depending on who uses it. It used to have the connotation of its root, "liberty." But it was commandeered by the left to hide their statist, socialist goals. During the 1980s enough people woke up to that and then the label evolved into "progressive."
Libertarian: Tends to be fiscally conservative, but socially liberal. Someone who knows that leftist ideas don't work, but doesn't want to be called a conservative because they see the label as applying to right-wing religious fanatics. They can't be moderates because they are passionate about individual rights, protecting a woman's "right" to an abortion (the two have nothing to do with each other), and just generally being left alone.
Non-Sequitur: (Latin for ""it does not follow""), in formal logic, is an argument in which its conclusion does not follow from its premises.In a non sequitur, the conclusion can be either true or false, but the argument is fallacious because the conclusion does not follow from the premise.
Ontology: Greek ontos "of being" and ology "study of"; the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence, or reality and the categories and hierarchies of entities.
Phlogiston: (from the Ancient Greek φλογιστόν phlŏgistón "burning up", from φλόξ phlóx "fire"), first stated in 1667 by Johann Joachim Becher, is an obsolete scientific theory that postulated the existence of a fire-like element called "phlogiston", which was contained within combustible bodies and released during combustion. The theory was an attempt to explain processes such as combustion and the rusting of metals, which are now understood as oxidation.
In this blog it will sometimes be used as a euphemism for silly ideas.
Progressive: n. modern euphemism for leftist/statist/socialist types. It sounds good because the root word is "progress" but what they are progressing toward is totalitarian statism and ultimate disaster in trying to create Utopia.
Racist: a word that has been abused to the point of meaninglessness. Originally it was used to describe an attitude or a person which held the idea that one "race" of people was inherently superior to another. The word has now devolved into an epithet of vile disdain against anyone who dares to question the policies of the Left regarding social or economic issues. Most often used when the Left is losing an argument based on facts and logic. Its primary purpose is to dismiss the opponent on an ad hominem basis.
Race: referring to the species of homo sapiens, this word was created by evolutionists in order to justify the idea that some people groups are inherently superior or inferior to others. The original classifications were of three main groups, Mongoloid, Negroid, and Caucasoid. In order for this concept to have any validity one must assume that homonid evolution actually occurred, for which there is no real scientific evidence. "Race" is often used by laymen when a better term would be ethnicity or culture.
Solipsism: the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. The term comes from the Latin solus (alone) and ipse (self). A purely hypothetical position that anything outside one's own specific mind is unjustified. The external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist. This idea is proven silly every day by people interacting all over the planet, keeping appointments with each other, building things and an almost limitless number of other activities. It is an idea that some people use to dismiss realities that they find uncomfortable.
SWAG: acronym; Scientific Wild Ass Guess
Teleonomy: the study of purposeful structures. The concept, especially in biology that structures demonstrate obvious purpose, and even component parts serve an overall purpose in an organ.
Tolerance: mostly only useful in engineering and mechanics, describing the minimum and maximum ranges in which something is functional. When it comes to human interaction, for conservatives, it means what we will put up with even though we don't like it. Tolerance is something that the left knows little or nothing about.
