"The next time someone sneers “conspiracy theorist,” “anti-vaxxer,” “climate denier,” “far right,” “hate speech,” “terrorist,” or the ever-popular “racist,” understand what they are really saying: stop thinking.

These words are a linguistic kill-switch—engineered to short-circuit thought by triggering a reflexive emotional spasm.

If you encounter someone using these words, you can be certain you are not dealing with someone interested in a good faith effort to find the truth."

"Although they are a poor substitute for an actual argument, these propaganda terms unfortunately work on many people. Call someone one of these words and you no longer need to refute their ideas with facts, logic, or reason. The slur does the work like magic."

Full Article:
https://internationalman.com/articles/the-linguistic-kill-switch-inside-the-modern-propaganda-playbook/

yeah, its psychological warfare.

call people names. 

oldest trick in the book.

 

Scott Adams' book Loserthink.  

 

'Splains it all...  Recommended reading.

anti-semite is another one ...

This is what happens when today's 30-year-old has the lexicon of the previous generation's 12-year-old of circa 10,000 words. Not that I'm suggesting the modern education system is to blame for this outcome, but which government ever wanted an educated and informed society?

 

The smaller one's lexicon, the more difficult it is to conceptualise and verbalise your thoughts. All the famous dystopian novels have language control (and therefore the ability to think with nuance and subtlety) as a central theme. From the Newspeak of 1984, the book burning of Fahrenheit 451, to Rand's Anthem - where the very concept of the first-person singular pronoun was expunged. 

 

This excerpt from 1984 sums it up:

 

"You don’t grasp the beauty of the destruction of words. Do you know that Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year? Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we’re not far from that point. But the process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there’s no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It’s merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control. But in the end, there won’t be any need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect. "

The next time someone uses any of those words against you just tell them that they are "f..g idiots".

Funny thing is that those words they throw at you are not negative words.

“conspiracy theorist,” “anti-vaxxer,” “climate denier,” “far right,” “hate speech,” “terrorist,” or the ever-popular “racist,

 

I like to be called that , because it is true and it is a positive thing.

On 8/7/2025 at 8:50 AM, GreasyFingers said:

The next time someone uses any of those words against you just tell them that they are "f..g idiots".

 

yep...... short and to the point .   there are an assortment of types throwing that crap around.    Some write long debates,  others can only manage a short ad hominem (with a coffee cup emoji) ,   and others are cut and paste  geniuses and tell you they have a degree .  wow....... never confuse "education"  with intelligence .

 

one guy was coming to CM and really wanted to meet me .   i thought, ok.. what the heck .

Boy,   was that ever a mistake !      lol