Certain Words mean Certain Things

It was my august infantry instructor who commanded that we understand what words mean (by august he meant venerable not regal).  After all, you don't want someone setting up an ambush if you said delaying position because that implies two different things. It is important in society to spend as much time understanding the words people use as much as it is to spend time.

His credo was, "certain words mean certain things". I altered that slightly to consider and understand the definitions of words so I can understand better what people meant.

I just wrote a blog post calling Clinton and Obama plutocrats. Here is the wiktionary word definition - not meaning because people can intend many meanings.

plutocrat ‎(plural plutocrats)
Someone who rules by virtue of his or her wealth.

In this revealing article below, it explains why that applies to Democrats;

Thomas Frank on How Democrats Went From Being the ‘Party of the People’ to the Party of Rich Elites Democrats have gone from the party of the New Deal to a party that is defending mass inequality.

Today's Democrats are the party of professional, well-off, elites and not of labor. They went to school and that's how they got ahead. In their mind, everyone should go to school like they did and they will succeed.  Job seekers today know different.  While they intend that everyone can get to the top if they go to school, the reality is they can't all make it. That makes them plutocrats because they believe they got their by earning it in a meritocracy; which in reality was part other factors including luck.   I could have called them oligarchs but that's an even less used term and it makes me sound more gauche and elitist. Nothing is further from the truth.

Now, I don't use big words to demean people that don't know them, this is not an ego trip. I use the words because they fit the pattern and behavior of the person or thing I am commenting on.  I am an INTJ on the Briggs-Meyer test, a mastermind, I describe things accurately to make sense of my world. But I also learn the words. Rather than spending time on emotional reactions, I go and look up the new word people used I don't know and then think carefully about how that applied to the situation at hand.

So go and look up words it's never cheaper and easier at wiktionary. And if you stare at Obama and Clinton long enough, you will not say that annoying person didn't know what he was talking about, you will realize there was a specific reason why that word was used. And whole new worlds will open up to you, as you increase your deeper understanding.

Certain words mean certain things.

In denial about impact...

Obama has a real behavioral habit which is one reason why he's seen as a poor president by some corners of America that would otherwise react rationally to reasonable behaviour. It's not just that people hate him because he's a democrat or a black man. It's because he stakes a claim on opinion that is proven false which makes him seem stupid or in denial about the impact of those statements being wrong. It strips credibility from what he's trying to do.

Obama has a real disconnection from the reality and impact of speaking an opinion that is proved wrong very soon after uttering it.  When he claims that off shore drilling is safe when it's as dangerous as any offshore operations, it makes he seem out of touch.  Barack Obama reverses campaign promise and approves offshore drilling

This was one of the first times I noticed this habit. This is a bad habit and any tactician would tell you how devastating it is for confidence if you utter wishful thinking that falls over immediately. Thinking 3 moves ahead, you know it's unwise to start that way. So why do it again and again?


When he calls a serious terrorist organization amateur when he could be vaguer that makes him seem ill-informed or out of touch.  Spinning Obama’s reference to Islamic State as a ‘JV’ team

When he claims Americans are safe when a fraction of them will clearly die in terror violence that will get through the safest security system, then he is lying to the masses when they can see differently. Obama: U.S. safe against ISIS attack.


It doesn't matter he was proven wrong in hours, it might have been hours weeks or months it will eventually happen.

When he refuses to blame Islam in any way for the violence they commit and get away with he tarnishes the rights of non-Muslim Americans that don't want to live in fear of deceitful neighbors.  Obama Explains Why He Doesn't Use The Term 'Radical Islam' For Islamic State, Al Qaeda

He is wishing the statements to be true when there is little support for that opinion. That is what opponents seize on to discredit; some of the most facile and foolish work of an otherwise capable president.

He is tone-deaf to the outcome when he is proven wrong, that it shakes trust and confidence at a time when people need assurance the president is not in denial. That denial of impact is far worse than any pipe bomb or assault rifle.

Obama lost to hubris, not the Republicans

@Bill Maher, you are wrong about how Obama lost.  He lost because he thought the Republicans were too devastated to come back and he decided to play politics instead of lead the country. And the Democrats were just as guilty.

The real reason was identified by @Ed Rogers in the Washington Post back in September.  People don't like being told the economy is getting better when they see people working three part time jobs with no benefits and calling that fully employed. When they see companies laying off workers, when they see no factories coming back you can't lie to them they will get angry at you. Obama continued to overstate the recovery in the face of evidence to the contrary. Even after the election.

Case in point, the Keystone XL pipeline was a guarantee of jobs for Americans but Obama decided to punt the decision down the road and stall high-paying jobs to appease Democratic environmentalists.  But the people wanted the jobs and that angered lots of people in the heartland.

Obama has to expect the Republicans to play politics and play to the base.  So why did he risk a majority by not governing, not working for the greater good? I thought he was a hope and change president?

That's why Obama lost, hubris.