Talk:Power word

message: For an April 2005 deletion debate over this page see Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Power word
:Given that the results of the debate were unanimously for merge, why is this article still here? Soo 18:09, 1 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Good question. Three years later we will have no sources. I will merge this into loaded language, as agreed. --Duncan (talk) 07:58, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Following the comment below, I did not take over the long list of examples, only the definition. --Duncan (talk) 08:05, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Merge completed

message: I take question with the following - "An example of the word freedom used as a power word would be a terrorist group calling themselves 'freedom' fighters, or conversely, an army invading another country to conquer it, and calling it "liberating" the country. For instance, the American invasion of Iraq, was dubbed 'Operation Iraqi Freedom'." 
This seems rather non-neutral to me, and putting the sentence about the American operation directly after the bit about conquering wrongly implies to the reader that the purpose of OIF was to conquer Iraq.  Perhaps we could find an example of a country whose actual intent was to conquer as a better example?  Regards, Irishnightwish (talk) 12:57, 10 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Question about the Freedom section 

message: Is there really such a thing as a "neutral" power-word? This category seems to have been stuffed in haphazardly and is badly written.
:I don't think it is. "Neo" just means "new", as in a new resurgence (e.g. neo-liberal, a return of classical liberalism) or a new development (e.g. neo-conservative, a new development in conservatism). A word (or in this case a prefix) that neither raises nor reduces the subjective impression of a phrase is by definition not a power word.  — Gwalla | Talk 22:53, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Also, "Neo" ends in a vowel sound which is useful in that it can easily be voiced in front of consonant leading words. "New-classical" takes slightly more effort to say than "Neo-classical" to speakers of English. The same can be said for vowel leading words such as order. "New Order" 'sounds better' to English speakers than "Neo Order". Neo and New generally depend on the word it is attached to and shouldn't be considered 'power words'. Argentak (talk) 02:53, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is "Neo" a Power Word ?

message: I've reverted the "Democratic" power word description back to its orignal which mentions the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's use as a power word is much more clear with this example. It wasn't too long ago that someone changed it (to make a political statement?) but I didn't track down exactly who and when. --joeOnSunset 22:52, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  DRC->U.S. Democratic Party 

message: I spent almost three hours totally overhauling this article for neutrality and much else, and then my f#$*ing browser crashed before I could save it.  Arrrrggh.  Well, I've added this to my watch list and some time when I have the spirit to tackle it again, I'll re-do all that work.  — SMcCandlish [talk] [contrib] ツ 19:03, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  &lt;sigh&gt; 

message: Right now the article on "political subversion" doesn't have a discussion of this issue, but "subversive" has been used in Latin American politics considerably in a function similar to "dissident" — to denigrate and even demonize political opposition. This article seems like one good place for a mention of that usage. Lawikitejana 07:11, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Need to add "subversive" to the political section 

message: I'm looking for better references to explain the old Soviet power words "hooligan" and "cosmopolitan". Cecil Adams is the only one I can find, but I'd prefer something a bit more authoritative. Does anybody have anything?
BTW, "hooligan" referred to political protesters; "cosmopolitan" referred to Jews. They were often used in the Soviet media to (respectively) denigrate political opposition and bolster anti-Semitism. --Charlene 07:05, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sounds to me more like they were used in English translation of Soviet propaganda, since neither of those are Russian words; who knows what the Soviets actually were saying...  "Hooligan" is most frequently used in English to refer to over-excited fans at soccer and other sporting events.  I'd agree it's a "power word" because the establishment types like to use the word to mean "perpetrator or inciter of violence or other unlawful action at a sporting event" out of one side of their mouth, then label any hardcore sports fan with the same word out of the other.  It's a similar trick to the "skateboarders destroy property" line, to get anti-skateboarding ordinances passed (in reality, certain vandalous skateboarders damage property, and should be prosecuted as vandals, while the rest do not, any more than rollerskaters or bicyclists do.)  It's a common abuse of political language to create or use a label for a group and then either make unfounded generalizations about the group (skateboarders = vandals) or expand the scope of the group to unsupportably wide reaches (fans = hooligans). — SMcCandlish [talk] [contrib] ツ 02:26, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: "Hooligan" and "Cosmopolitan"

message: :Epidemic. Used to describe anything widespread. It began as a term to describe a quickly-spreading disease. It has progressively become more vague into "anything that is widespread, regardless of nature or time period". For example, an epidemic may be used to describe people who play video games and watch TV, when in fact both have been around for decades.
Okay, what EXACTLY is redeeming about this article?  I haven't made any edits to this article because there's nothing of substance or of source to improve, and I've seen it go unchanged for months.  It portrays conservatives and Christians (almost exclusively) as the purveyors of power words.  Or it makes no sense at all, as above.  The moral/immoral thing is stupid too.  No matter how true many of them may be, the example section contains blatant and unsourced editoralizing on the vast majority of entries, or is poorly-written and vaguely defined.  I want to learn how to nominate this for deletion, if possible.  Last time I said this, someone told me to "learn the ropes" first, which is fine, but maybe someone who KNOWS the ropes to teach me or them/herself take action w.r.t. improving the article.  If you hate clicking, DO NOT click here. 01:32, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  How is this a power word? 

message: This article at this point is primarily a sprawling list. WP:NOT#DIR and WP:NOT#IINFO This article should focus more on what a power word is rather than list every single power word anyone can come up with. A small handful of examples used as examples throughout the text would be fine, but this article needs a major cleanup. Neitherday 22:17, 5 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Please do.  I favor deleting the entire examples section entirely.  If necessary, provide ONE neutral example. Pusher robot 22:09, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

text: This article has returned to it's sprawling list state and direly needs to be cleaned up. There is not one source here that labels any of these words as a "power word". This list appears to be original research. Neitherday (talk) 22:37, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Sprawling List

message: Is the neutrality of the current version still in dispute? If not, I'm going to remove the tag. Neitherday 04:55, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I removed the NPOV and cleanup templates from the top of the article. If anyone disagrees with this move, feel free to add one or both of them back. Neitherday 18:20, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

text: Note: I left the other two templates in place. Neitherday 18:21, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Neutrality

message: I couldn't tell if this link is the only source of the term "Power word" or if it's something that can be used as a source. Fredsmith2 07:04, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Source or the source?