A Leader letter writer put a label on me several weeks ago that made me curious.
He called me a “progressive,” and I honestly had no idea whether I was or wasn’t.
Words gain their power through what people think they mean. But, boy, does that vary from person to person and from group to group.
Remember the word “liberal?” Once upon a time, people on the left side of things were proud to be known as liberals, but then people on the right managed to make liberalism the kiss of death in elections (think Michael Dukakis). Suddenly, no one was a liberal anymore (think Bill Clinton, who espoused liberal policies but worked hard to distance himself from the actual label).
So, a word that had once enjoyed good standing started stinking like yesterday’s dead skunk.
The progressive label has historical relevance back to Teddy Roosevelt’s day in the early 1900s, when it described him and other Republicans – yes, Republicans – who fought for labor reforms. But in the modern era, it is a Democratic word, which some believe took root when non-liberal Bill Clinton used the Progressive Policy Institute, a think tank, to help him craft his 1992 presidential campaign’s economic plan.
Fast-forward to 2016, when a BBC story claimed that “progressive” had become a coveted identifier among Democrats (kind of like liberal was decades ago), and that presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were sparring over which one better embodied the term.
The story cited warring definitions among Democrats, with some progressives supporting social programs to boost economic and social equality, feminism and gay rights, and others simply wanting to identify with the left wing of the Democratic Party, unlinked to a social movement or cause.
Neither definition flies in Flyover Country (that’s us, Jefferson County), where if robins want to fit in, they’d be advised to have no left wings. The fact that 2016 national Democratic candidates didn’t figure that out and didn’t throw even a little bone to conservatives might help explain why a Republican sleeps in the White House.
I certainly don’t fit within those two definitions of a progressive, but I decided to check another source, the “Urban Dictionary,” an online website created in 1999 by Aaron Peckman to gather definitions of new words, phrases and slang.
Wikipedia says it is the most-used online dictionary and that by 2014, it had more than 7 million definitions with 2,000 new ones added daily. The dictionary is “crowd sourced,” meaning people send in suggested definitions, and the most popular get ranked.
The No. 1 definition for progressive is “an epitaph for a radical-liberal or socialist.”
Ouchie.
Near the top: “A term that former liberals co-opted when they discovered that their delusional beliefs didn’t fit any recognized definition of the word liberal.” Another definition: Someone who has “lived off their parents until their 20s or 30s.”
Double-ouchie.
I didn’t see any positive definitions, although some might be buried further down the list.
Could we be progressing toward a moment when progressive becomes the new dirty word? I’m thinking our letter writer is ahead of the curve and knows the die is already cast. I don’t think I’m a progressive, but he does, and he was NOT trying to pay me a compliment.
Democrats, I think you’re gonna have to come up with a new label.
Word choices by two other recent letter writers also sent me to the internet. I do read a lot, but apparently I’m not keeping up with the culture.
The first was “snowflake.” Teenager Ike Brda of Arnold wrote to tell Leader readers that his generation is being unfairly maligned as a bunch of snowflakes.
The Urban Dictionary defines a snowflake as someone who is easily offended. It says the term used to be a political insult (lobbed by conservatives toward their liberal foes), but now is out there for everyone to use. Got it.
My next moment of incomprehension came when a gun-rights advocate described himself as a “sheepdog.” I kind of understood, but thought he had coined the description himself and that others wouldn’t get it. I took the word out and edited the letter to retain his overall message.
The next week another letter used the same word and I realized this was a cultural thing. Sure enough, the Urban Dictionary defines sheepdog – “Certain special people who watch over the rest of the people. The rest are called sheep. Sheepdogs prevent the ‘wolves’ or bad people/things from hurting the sheep.”
The second letter writer got to keep his sheepdog reference, with a little help from the editor to make sure other clueless people like me would understand.
Thanks, letter writers. I’ve added three new words to my lexicon in about three months.
I’m making progress, but please, sheepdogs, don’t call me a progressive.
Nor do I want to be a snowflake; that label hurts my feelings.
