226
votes
Accepted
Why is Trump dubbing COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus" considered offensive, while many past epidemics have had similar naming schemes?
Let's appreciate the learning curve. The problem with all of those historical names is that they created sharp spikes in prejudice, social ostracism, and violence against the indicated groups, and ...
- 67.7k
163
votes
Accepted
What is the Alt-Left?
The alt-left is not really a thing unless you live in Switzerland, where it is a political party.
In the US, it's a term that got cooked up by the alt-right to describe their fantasized progressive ...
- 30.5k
139
votes
What is the Alt-Left?
There is no "alt-left". It's a term made up by the right to far-right in an attempt to create a false equivalence between white supremacists and those opposing white supremacism:
It's a &...
- 36k
103
votes
Accepted
What is it called when someone votes for an option that's not their first choice?
It’s called tactical voting.
From Wikipedia:
In voting methods, tactical voting (or strategic voting or sophisticated voting or insincere voting) occurs, in elections with more than two candidates,...
- 13.4k
101
votes
What is the meaning of "Cancel Culture"?
A new*, deliberately pejorative, term to describe an old phenomenon, that of pressuring individuals or companies through the media when you disagree with their views, often in the ethnic/sexual ...
97
votes
Is there a term for someone whose preferred policies are a mix of left and right?
I looked at your profile and saw that you're an American.
You are confused by Bob because you assume that the political positions held by the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are directly ...
- 15.6k
80
votes
Why is Trump dubbing COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus" considered offensive, while many past epidemics have had similar naming schemes?
If you want official criticism from the WHO of what Trump did/said:
[Question:] Dr Tedros mentioned the importance
of international unity on this and I just wondered whether anyone there at WHO ...
- 144k
79
votes
What is the Alt-Left?
The alt-left, regressive left, or illiberal left are terms used to describe a subset of people on the left. The three terms may not be exactly the same, however they are close enough that I felt it ...
- 976
76
votes
What does “woke indoctrination” mean?
Generally when people talk about "woke indoctrination", they don't mean "woke" in its original meaning ("socially and politically aware"). It's a purposefully vague term ...
- 36k
73
votes
How does anti-Semitism differ from racism?
The easy answer is the same reason that any language has a word: it serves a useful function. English had a lot of words for rain because it rains a lot in England, and the words used differentiate ...
- 7,470
71
votes
How is North Korea democratic, if there's only one party with one ideology?
North Korea is far from the only example. Wikipedia lists a couple of other countries which claim to be democratic but are not, according to 'Western' standards:
Many countries that use the term &...
- 3,232
69
votes
Why do Republicans and others accept the propagandaic use of the term "Progressives"?
Almost every term can be appropriated to gain a positive or negative connotation.
Even the term "Fascist" used to have a positive connotation once. It was derived from the Italian word "fascio", a ...
- 74.7k
69
votes
Accepted
Why has the UK Government moved away from "Ministry of..." names?
Firstly, it's not quite correct to say that UK Government departments were traditionally named Ministries. The common use of the term Ministry to describe government departments was mostly introduced ...
CDJB♦
- 105k
63
votes
Accepted
Why does the Scottish National Party object to being called nationalist?
Nationalism today is mostly associated with ethnic nationalism, which the SNP as a center-left party does not wish to be associated with.
Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the SNP, has expressed ...
- 36k
57
votes
Are "keep your powder dry" or "Stand back and standby" arguably examples of "dog whistles"?
The metaphor of a 'dog whistle' refers to literal dog whistles: whistles that produce tones too high for humans to hear, but which are perfectly audible to dogs and generally excite those dogs to bark ...
- 67.7k
53
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between totalitarianism and authoritarianism?
From a very abstract point of view, the difference is that totalitarianism desires to completely (totally) influence the thoughts and actions of its citizens, even into the private sphere, while ...
- 13.1k
52
votes
What is it called when someone votes for an option that's not their first choice?
As Andrew Grimm correctly pointed out it is tactical voting you are looking for. However, I would avoid harsh terms such as dishonest since Wikipedia also mentioned that:
It has been shown by the ...
- 52.6k
52
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between democracy and ochlocracy?
Both democracy and ochlocracy are forms of government where political activism by citizens is tolerated as part of politics.
The difference is that a democratic state follows its legislative, ...
- 74.7k
52
votes
Accepted
How much of the US media referred to the COVID-19 as the "Wuhan Virus" until it received an official designation from the WHO?
Max Rissuto from DFRLab has analysed this in an article published on March 17th which tests the media bias claims made by Republican politicians including GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy, who tweeted ...
CDJB♦
- 105k
51
votes
Accepted
Can the U.S. technically be called an oligarchy and a democracy?
All modern democracies are representative; it's for purely pragmatic reasons hard to see how a large community could govern itself directly by the people without introducing representative ...
- 9,363
51
votes
Where are the "shires" in the UK?
This is actually a surprisingly complicated question to answer, or at least to give specifics for. Briefly, a "shire" is a unit of land division, very similar to "county", the ...
- 21.1k
51
votes
What specific political traits classify a political leader as a fascist?
First let me say that I disagree with the notion that there is no clear definition of the term 'fascism'. Fascism is ethnocultural-nationalism, in Orwell's sense of the term 'nationalism'; that may ...
- 67.7k
51
votes
Name for phenomenon in which attempting to solve a problem locally can seemingly fail because they absorb the problem from elsewhere?
While these examples may seem like the same phenomenon, they're meaningfully distinct. That said, there's a whole slew of terms that cover a variety of cases including these and others.
In order of ...
- 16.4k
50
votes
How is North Korea democratic, if there's only one party with one ideology?
Just because a country calls itself something doesn't mean it's true.
Point of fact, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is said to have four false statements in its name:
It's not democratic, ...
- 1,936
48
votes
What is the meaning of "Cancel Culture"?
Cancel culture is a term reflecting two things, not just one:
Cancelling - an outcome related to extreme disapproval of people and organisations perceived to have acted so egregiously, that they ...
- 7,208
47
votes
What is gerrymandering called if it's not the result of redrawing districts?
"Disproportionate representation" describes the result without making any reference to the cause. For example,
States have disproportionate representation in the Senate
is a perfectly reasonable ...
- 1,803
46
votes
Is there an unambiguous name for the social/political theory "liberalism" without "leftist"?
This all resolves if you realise that the term sought is: liberalism!
The linked Wiki page makes no mention of liberalism being a leftist thing.
liberalism (n.)
"liberal principles," especially ...
- 5,012
46
votes
Accepted
Why do US politicians use the title "czar?"
The term 'Czar' is used frequently, since the turn of 20th Century, by members of both parties, and in nations other than the United States.
It's an informal term meant to describe a person who has ...
- 16.4k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible