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The chattering classes is a politically active, socially concerned and highly educated section of the "metropolitan middle class", [1] especially those with political, media, and academic connections. It is a generally derogatory term, [1] often used by pundits and political commentators.
It is sometimes used to refer to a liberal elite, but its first use by British journalist Frank Johnson in 1980 appeared to include a wider range of pundits. [1] Indeed, the term is used by people all across the political spectrum to refer to the journalists and political operatives who see themselves as the arbiters of conventional wisdom. [2] As such, the notion of "chattering classes" can be seen as an antonym to the older idea of an unrepresented silent majority, made notable by the U.S. Republican Party President Richard Nixon.
In the United States, the term has come to be used by both the left and right and to describe political opponents, with Stephen Perrault of the Merriam-Webster dictionary suggesting that the term has "connotations of idleness, of useless talk, that the noun 'chatter' does. ... These people don't amount to much—they like to hear themselves talk." [3]
A euphemism is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes to downplay. Euphemisms may be used to mask profanity or refer to topics some consider taboo such as disability, sex, excretion, or death in a polite way.
Queer is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender. Originally meaning 'strange' or 'peculiar', queer came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the late 1980s, queer activists, such as the members of Queer Nation, began to reclaim the word as a deliberately provocative and politically radical alternative to the more assimilationist branches of the LGBT community.
Feelings are subjective self-contained phenomenal experiences. According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, a feeling is "a self-contained phenomenal experience"; and feelings are "subjective, evaluative, and independent of the sensations, thoughts, or images evoking them". The term feeling is closely related to, but not the same as, emotion. Feeling may for instance refer to the conscious subjective experience of emotions. The study of subjective experiences is called phenomenology. Psychotherapy generally involves a therapist helping a client understand, articulate, and learn to effectively regulate the client's own feelings, and ultimately to take responsibility for the client's experience of the world. Feelings are sometimes held to be characteristic of embodied consciousness.
The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the intelligentsia consists of scholars, academics, teachers, journalists, and literary writers.
Bollocks is a word of Middle English origin, meaning "testicles". The word is often used figuratively in British English and Hiberno-English in a multitude of negative ways; it most commonly appears as a noun meaning "rubbish" or "nonsense", an expletive following a minor accident or misfortune, or an adjective to describe something that is of poor quality or useless. It is also used in common phrases like "bollocks to this", which is said when quitting a task or job that is too difficult or negative, and "that's a load of old bollocks", which generally indicates contempt for a certain subject or opinion. Conversely, the word also appears in positive phrases such as "the dog's bollocks" or more simply "the bollocks", which will refer to something which is admired or well-respected.
An op-ed piece, short for "opposite the editorial page," derives its name from originally having appeared physically opposite of the editorial page in a newspaper. Today, the term is used more widely to represent a column that represents the strong, informed, and focused opinion of the writer on an issue of relevance to a targeted audience. It is a written prose piece which expresses the opinion of an author or entity with no affiliation with the publication's editorial board.
Democrat Party is an epithet for the Democratic Party of the United States, used in a disparaging fashion by the party's opponents. While use of the term started out as non-hostile, it has grown in its negative use since the 1940s, in particular by members of the Republican Party—in party platforms, partisan speeches, and press releases—as well as by conservative commentators and third party politicians.
In sociology and in political science, the term The Establishment describes the dominant social group, the élite who control a polity, an organization, or an institution. In the praxis of power, The Establishment usually is a self-selecting, closed élite entrenched within specific institutions — hence, a relatively small social class can exercise all socio-political control.
A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area.
The Note is a summary and analysis of political news stories and trends published every weekday morning by ABCNews.com.
A people is any plurality of persons considered as a whole. Used in politics and law, the term "a people" refers to the collective or community of an ethnic group or nation. The term "the people" refers to the public or common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty.
Battlers, in Australian colloquialism, are ordinary working-class people who persevere through their commitments despite adversity. Typically, this adversity comprises low pay, family problems, environmental hardships and personal recognition woes. It is a term of respect and endearment intended to empower and recognise those who feel as though they exist at the bottom of society. It has seen recent use in mainstream politics to describe a demographic of Australian people, most notably by former Prime Minister John Howard, who used it to describe his working-class voting base.
Fighting Talk is a topical sports show broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live during the English football season. The show is broadcast on Saturday mornings for an hour between 1100 and 1200 and is based on a similar format to the ESPN show Around the Horn.
Macaca[mɐˈkakɐ] (feminine) and macaco[mɐˈkaku] (masculine) are the Portuguese words for "monkey". In Portugal and Portuguese-speaking countries, macaco is used as a racial slur against black people.
The term Jewish lobby is used to describe organized lobbying attributed to Jews on domestic and foreign policy decisions, as political participants of representative government, conducted predominantly in the Jewish diaspora in a number of Western countries. When used to allege disproportionately favorable Jewish influence, it can be perceived as pejorative or as constituting antisemitism.
Cracker, sometimes white cracker or cracka, is a racial slur directed towards White people, used especially with regard to poor rural Whites in the Southern United States. Although commonly a pejorative, it is also used in a neutral context, particularly in reference to a native of Florida or Georgia.
Redneck is a derogatory term chiefly, but not exclusively, applied to white Americans perceived to be crass and unsophisticated, closely associated with rural whites of the Southern United States.
Old Stock Canadians is a term referring to European Canadians whose family has lived in Canada for several generations. It is used by some to refer exclusively to anglophone Canadians with British settler ancestors, but it usually refers to either anglophone or francophone Canadians as parallel old stock groups. Francophone Canadians descended from early French settlers in New France are sometimes referred to as Québécois pure laine, often translated as "dyed in the wool", but with the same connotation as old stock.
Gutmensch is an ironic, sarcastic or disparaging cultural term similar to the English do-gooder. Those who use the term are implying that Gutmenschen have an overwhelming wish to be good and eagerly seek approval—further suggesting a supposed moralising and proselytising behaviour and being dogmatic, while prioritizing "right" and "correct" attitude or sentiment over responsible, balanced, rational and reflected decisions. In political rhetoric Gutmensch is used as a polemic term.
Political posturing, also known as political grandstanding, political theatre, or "kabuki", is the use of speech or actions to gain political support through emotional or affective appeals. It applies especially to appeals that are seen as hollow or lacking political or economic substance, or to superficial appeals that may not reflect a person's genuine ideology or political preferences.
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