2016 Election Glossary

Alt-Right - A loose group of people with far right ideologies who reject mainstream conservatism in the United States.
Alt-right postings generally support Republican President-elect Donald Trump, and oppose immigration, multiculturalism and political correctness.
Anachronistic - Something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, especially a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time. Writers have been referring to the Aanachronistic Electoral College System, which allows a person to win while having fewer people vote for them .
Antifa - Anti-Fascists - A movement that opposes fascist and extreme right-wing politicssuch as the "alt-left"
Bigotry - Intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself.
Cognitive Dissonance - A situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance etc.
Cuck - A term the alt-right uses to imply that mainstream conservatives of the Jeb Bush variety are weak and effeminate. It is derived from cuckoo birds, which lay eggs in another's nest.
Demagogue - A leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power.
Emolument - A salary, fee, or profit from employment or office.
Excoriate - Censure or criticize severely.
A Nov. 11, 2016 NY Times article says, "Many former Republican officials, including some of the signers of two open letters this year excoriating Mr. Trump's foreign policy views, have sent resumes to Trump's transition team."
Fake news - Made-up stuff, masterfully manipulated to look like credible journalistic reports that are easily spread online to large audiences willing to believe the fictions and spread the word. See How Fake News Goes Viral - The New York Times
Since the election President Trump has been using it refer to any traditional news he doesn't agree with.
Infantilization - To reduce to an infantile state or condition.
Used more as part of the 2017 "Me Too" movement against sexual assault and harassment.
Internet Troll - A troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response.
Mendacious - Not telling the truth. Lying, untruthful, dishonest, deceitful, false, dissembling, insincere, disingenuous, hypocritical, fraudulent, double-dealing, two-faced, Janus-faced, two-timing, duplicitous, perjured; More
Meme - an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture". The word meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene.
Derogatory, sometimes funny, images and ideas were rampant and spread via twitter and political discussion boards and other Internet means during the 2016 election. The spread of memes was referred to as internet trolling (above).
See memetics.
Meritocracy - a political philosophy holding that power should be vested in individuals almost exclusively based on ability and talent.
Misogynist - A person who doesn't trust women.
Nativism - The policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants.
Self aggrandizement - The action or process of promoting oneself as being powerful or important.
Overton Window - Joe Overton who worked for a think tank in Michigan in the mid 90's theorized that politicians can only voice opinions within a band inside the left to right political spectrum. Any politician who voices an opinion outside this range of acceptable opinions will see their career come to an abrupt end and be ostracized.
Donald Trump has skillfully manipulated the national media demonstrating the accepted boundaries of where the window lies on the right is not where the window actually is.
Xenophobia - The fear of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange.

See other terms at my Alt-right page.

last updated 2 Oct 2017