Politics, pop culture: labels

Self-tutoring about everyday expressions: the tutor reflects…

During the Cold War, for example, under Reagan, the biggest enemy was Communism (in North America). You often heard about Communist plots to gradually control certain districts, etc. Anybody could be a Communist. To satirists, and eventually, your everyday citizen, it became laughable. People got tired of being afraid of Communism and Communists.

Yet, Communist stuck as a put-down, simply for legacy reasons. People had been afraid of Communists, who had been described as underhanded and opportunistic. Therefore, in the late 80s, you could be called a Communist for parking in a spot someone else wanted, or being the last person to get a seat at a movie. This was sometimes sub-conscious, and sometimes lighthearted. Yet, Communist couldn’t be a compliment, simply because of the fear it had bred in the past.

A humourous example of this was with a friend of mine, who actually was a Communist for real. However, when he was playing a video game and an enemy was giving him a hard time, he’d exclaim, “Stupid Communist.”

Presently, “Communist” being a neutral term, you seldom hear it. “Capitalist” is used more, and often as a negative. An obvious question: did the Communists win, after all?