Open Salon-My Blog

Pat O'Brien

Every age has its worries . . .

Words and phrases that no longer mean what they used to:

(Watch this list grow.)

Activist = usually substitute the word troublemaker for activist; it will make you think; definition: a troublemaker, shit stirrer, hoodlum with a greedy heart and a contrived cause

Airport security = mainly a series of arbitrary procedures that inconvenience, debase and delay travellers passing through without really guaranteeing their safety in the air

Anti-abortion, this along with gay marriage = the main Trojan horses being used by right-wing religious crazies to sneak through and impose their overall much broader fascist agenda on everyone else. Clint Eastwood sums the stupidness of this best: "I don't give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We're making a big deal out of things we shouldn't be making a deal out of ... Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want."

Anti-capitalist = a person ignorant of history and economics, living in delusion, possibly neurotic, psychotic and/or violent

Anarchist = much like an anti-capitalist, though profoundly more ignorant and prone to committing insane behaviour and violence

Asylum seeker = an economic opportunist, usually a social welfare system parasite in his/her/their new host country

'Brutal' murder, rape, etc. = as opposed to 'gentle' versions of those crimes

Budget reform, deficit reduction = terms flogged by right-wing politicians and their cheerleaders in an effort to shift attention from their true goals of protecting the interests of the rich at the expense of the poor

Dictator, tyrant = any political leader the governments of the US and/or UK doesn't like or want eliminated

Estate agent, real estate agent, property flogger = a parasite

European Union = the renewed multi-century effort by Germany and France to control all of Europe; once again, it's not going well, though it's nice that ordnance and troops aren't involved this time. Yet.

Global financial crisis = a 'politically correct' term for the robbing of the international banking and securities systems by thieves/con artists who were then allowed to keep most of the loot they stole without getting so much as a parking ticket.

Journalism = the information circus, largely controlled these days by profit seekers, bean counters and others involved in making huge amounts of money at the expense of the public's desperately need for objective news reportage.

Journalists = clowns in the above circus

Low-cost or discount airline = a transportation company purporting to save travellers money while offering shoddy service, questionable safety and a generally bad travel experience for its customers who really don't get much, if any, real cost relief

Politician = often a megalomaniac with an aversion to telling the truth

Politically correct = a bullshit term aimed at keeping people from voicing their true opinions

Protester = usually someone eager to push his/her interests ahead of everyone else's under a supposed agenda of promoting some lofty and valued goal or change of their own choice

Reality TV = an oxymoron; there is no reality involved, and no real entertainment value unless you're mentally impaired or just plain stupid

Recession = a nice way to describe the effects of the monetary nut squeeze by non-lending financial institutions in the aftermath of their plundering by their own employees and executives while brain-dead regulators snoozed

Referendum = an issue presented for a general vote that gives a false and manipulative impression that the public actually controls their government's actions

Religious freedom = the most destructive oxymoron in all history

Religious Right = not right, not religious, just right wing/fascist, and willing to sacrifice anything to impose the will of this movement's supporters' contrived and cleverly re-invented Jesus mania (anti-Catholic, anti Jewish, anti Muslim, anti liberal) on every one who opposes it

Rupert Murdoch = No definition available

Standup comedian = usually someone who says fuck repeatedly and does/says lots of vulgar things that may or may not get laughs

Terrorist = anyone who does something violent or threatening for any reason we don't like, regardless of other possibly mitigating factors

United Nations, The = a joke. Its Security Council = Where Russia and China shake their penises at the rest of the world and vote to block anything that remotely makes sense.

X-Factor = supposedly a music contest, this pile of stinky TV poo (and all of the variations on it) is really just a huge money churner for promoters and sponsors, not least among them the ripoff phone companies