Disliking the partisan renaming of words doesn't mean one has to participate in it. "Federalism" as a general word has a specific meaning and people who say that increasing, for instance, the DHS's oversight over individual sheriff's departments is an "erosion of federalism" are saying something completely true and defensible.
Federalism means a sharing of powers between local and central authorities, each of which has a specific set of inalienable powers the other can't touch. This is a perfectly cromulent word, and one should be free to use the word and to be able to make statements like "I'm in favor of more federalism in the area of counterterrorism" or "I'm in favor of decreasing federalism in favor of strong national leadership in this area" without anyone jumping on "federalism" because "it's a conservative word".
I will strongly state, for instance, that despite my belief that federalism is overall not a bad thing I think that a decrease in federalism and an increase in central leadership -- what in Europe they would call "weak federalism" -- would be beneficial for the school system. It would be annoying if conservatives attacked me as being "against federalism" because of this and used it as a buzzword, but I wouldn't sweat it because they would, after all, be right.
Same with the word "feminism". Most conservatives who use "feminist" as a slur, hate "feminists" and hate "feminism" are annoying, but they're not using the word *incorrectly*. They really are against feminism, against feminists, and so on. Trying to carp about their use of the word is a waste of time, as is trying to yell at people and tell them "Yes, you *are* really a feminist!" when they say they're not.
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chiming
Re: when an apple is an orange
Date: 2009-01-13 12:25 am (UTC)From:Federalism means a sharing of powers between local and central authorities, each of which has a specific set of inalienable powers the other can't touch. This is a perfectly cromulent word, and one should be free to use the word and to be able to make statements like "I'm in favor of more federalism in the area of counterterrorism" or "I'm in favor of decreasing federalism in favor of strong national leadership in this area" without anyone jumping on "federalism" because "it's a conservative word".
I will strongly state, for instance, that despite my belief that federalism is overall not a bad thing I think that a decrease in federalism and an increase in central leadership -- what in Europe they would call "weak federalism" -- would be beneficial for the school system. It would be annoying if conservatives attacked me as being "against federalism" because of this and used it as a buzzword, but I wouldn't sweat it because they would, after all, be right.
Same with the word "feminism". Most conservatives who use "feminist" as a slur, hate "feminists" and hate "feminism" are annoying, but they're not using the word *incorrectly*. They really are against feminism, against feminists, and so on. Trying to carp about their use of the word is a waste of time, as is trying to yell at people and tell them "Yes, you *are* really a feminist!" when they say they're not.