It was like a horrifying training session where students learn to ignore evidence, reason in favor of political hackery and bullshit.
I can’t quite summon up all the splenetic juices I need to hate that sort of thing the way it needs to be hated. I live in Canada, and crikey are our politicians langues-du-bois. You should have seen the candidates debate at the last election. Every one of them just hit their keywords, as I recall. The Conservative Harper tinkled the ivories about “tough on crime,” “fiscal responsibility” and “liberal corruption” (mercifully not “family values”). The Liberal Dion played a crab canon about “environment” and “recession.” And the NDP (Social-Democratic) Layton just did a sort of Ambrosian chant incorporating every word that has ever made a progressive feel warm and fuzzy inside: “rights” “working families” “aboriginals” “choice” “fat cats” and “social spending.” It made me want to elect Silvio Berlusconi.
Looking over your comments, the breadth of your vocabulary really is splendid. Do words like “splenetic” just come to your tongue or are you commenting away with a thesaurus open?
Heh, it’s kind of you to say. Basically, I grew up on a steady diet of shows like Black Adder, Jeeves and Wooster, Fawlty Towers… and authors like Douglas Adams, Rex Stout & Terry Pratchett. So my way of expressing myself has become more than a bit idiosyncratic.
Mostly I just didn’t recognize any of the names, but I did recognize what you were talking about. I don’t think clarification is what is really necessary here; since the purpose of your post seems to be more anecdotal evidence and venting than a fountain of new ideas.
If your post WAS supposed to be a fountain of new ideas, then it could use a little extra explanation.
I feel like that came off as a little more negative than I wanted it to so I’d like to note that I did enjoy and vote up your post.
More the European way. It definitely does not have the strong negative connotations, even among conservatives. Also worth noting that one of our two main political parties is actually called the Liberal Party of Canada.
Another fun fact: Liberals are also affectionately known as Grits, and Conservatives as Tories.
Do you Canadians use liberal like we Americans use it or like Europeans use it?
More the European way...Also worth noting that one of our two main political parties is actually called the Liberal Party of Canada.
My understanding is that that party is roughly the equivalent of the U.S. Democrats or U.K. Labour—which would make the usage of “liberal” much more like the American usage (meaning “left-wing”) than the European usage (meaning “opposed to high levels of economic regulation”).
In Australia the Liberal party is right-wing (liberal on free trade policies, not on social policies), so I tend to get confused about discussions of “liberals” in the US unless I remember to switch definitions before reading.
I can’t quite summon up all the splenetic juices I need to hate that sort of thing the way it needs to be hated. I live in Canada, and crikey are our politicians langues-du-bois. You should have seen the candidates debate at the last election. Every one of them just hit their keywords, as I recall. The Conservative Harper tinkled the ivories about “tough on crime,” “fiscal responsibility” and “liberal corruption” (mercifully not “family values”). The Liberal Dion played a crab canon about “environment” and “recession.” And the NDP (Social-Democratic) Layton just did a sort of Ambrosian chant incorporating every word that has ever made a progressive feel warm and fuzzy inside: “rights” “working families” “aboriginals” “choice” “fat cats” and “social spending.” It made me want to elect Silvio Berlusconi.
I did not understand any of this post, but I enjoyed all of it.
ETA: I am now envisioning a Canadian man just chanting those phrases, over and over, clapping his hands and stomping his feet.
I endeavour to give satisfaction. =)
Anything I can clarify? Probably did overdo the classical music metaphors a little...
Looking over your comments, the breadth of your vocabulary really is splendid. Do words like “splenetic” just come to your tongue or are you commenting away with a thesaurus open?
Heh, it’s kind of you to say. Basically, I grew up on a steady diet of shows like Black Adder, Jeeves and Wooster, Fawlty Towers… and authors like Douglas Adams, Rex Stout & Terry Pratchett. So my way of expressing myself has become more than a bit idiosyncratic.
Mostly I just didn’t recognize any of the names, but I did recognize what you were talking about. I don’t think clarification is what is really necessary here; since the purpose of your post seems to be more anecdotal evidence and venting than a fountain of new ideas.
If your post WAS supposed to be a fountain of new ideas, then it could use a little extra explanation.
I feel like that came off as a little more negative than I wanted it to so I’d like to note that I did enjoy and vote up your post.
Do you Canadians use liberal like we Americans use it or like Europeans use it?
More the European way. It definitely does not have the strong negative connotations, even among conservatives. Also worth noting that one of our two main political parties is actually called the Liberal Party of Canada.
Another fun fact: Liberals are also affectionately known as Grits, and Conservatives as Tories.
My understanding is that that party is roughly the equivalent of the U.S. Democrats or U.K. Labour—which would make the usage of “liberal” much more like the American usage (meaning “left-wing”) than the European usage (meaning “opposed to high levels of economic regulation”).
uh—interesting. Thanks for pointing that out.
In Australia the Liberal party is right-wing (liberal on free trade policies, not on social policies), so I tend to get confused about discussions of “liberals” in the US unless I remember to switch definitions before reading.
There is that. I thought Jack was getting at the negative connotation aspect.
The Liberal party here is basically centre-left.