Gender, Semantics “What gender critical feminism really amounts to is a baroque palace of rationalizations built on a foundation of pure disgust” Author Drew Kaplan Date 3 April 2019 The term “gender critical” is really a euphemism recently created to replace TERF with...
Semantics “‘Community’ makes everything sound better” Author Drew Kaplan Date 17 June 2018 “Community” is derived from the Anglo-Norman and Middle French communité, meaning, primarily, “joint ownership.”...
Politics in America “‘Classified’ still conjures images of top-secret government plots, but, in Trump’s Washington, it’s more often used to describe information that the president would prefer to keep quiet” Author Drew Kaplan Date 16 April 2018 Trump has been merciless toward anyone else in government who reveals his administration’s secrets,...
Internet, Semantics, Social Media “Pettiness often manifests itself as an outsize form of revenge — responding to mild slights by putting an absurd amount of energy into plotting meaningless reprisals” Author Drew Kaplan Date 15 April 2018 Pettiness often manifests itself as an outsize form of revenge — responding to mild...
Semantics “Through the whole late 20th century, ‘existential’ floated through American conversation mostly as a kind of mush…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 20 March 2018 Through the whole late 20th century, “existential” floated through American conversation mostly as a...
Semantics “The way we use ‘entitled’ feels less strange when you consider that its two meanings have slightly different origins” Author Drew Kaplan Date 18 March 2018 The way we use “entitled” feels less strange when you consider that its two...
Semantics “Owning someone isn’t just about taking his things; it’s about diminishing him as a person” Author Drew Kaplan Date 9 March 2018 “Owned” is borrowed from hacker slang. If you got owned, that meant some hacker...
Israel, Semantics When Michael Oren shifted the definition of “existential” Author Drew Kaplan Date 5 March 2018 In 2009, Michael B. Oren, soon to become Israel’s ambassador to the United States,...
Politics in America, Semantics “Politicization is the last refuge of the scoundrel” Author Drew Kaplan Date 4 March 2018 Politicization is the last refuge of the scoundrel. To “politicize” something — hurricanes, intelligence,...
Politics in America “Part of what makes the modern use of ‘winning’ so strange is that it’s often used in contexts that are not competitions” Author Drew Kaplan Date 30 August 2017 Part of what makes the modern use of “winning” so strange is that it’s...