this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
50 points (100.0% liked)
Politics
10827 readers
157 users here now
In-depth political discussion from around the world; if it's a political happening, you can post it here.
Guidelines for submissions:
- Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
- Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
- Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
- Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
- Social media should be a source of last resort.
These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Genuinely, what is the appropriate word for this?
In history, retrospectively I believe it was a "collaborator". But that to me does not evoke a sense of currency or anticipation of what is to come, which would be more helpful to us now.
Likewise the article suggests "complicit", but I have roughly the same problems with that.
Ultimately this smacks of "those who are not with me are against", which itself is vaguely similar to "the ends justify the means"... which is both obviously true and yet obviously so very not at the same time, presumably the difference lying in the circumstances where each applies or not.
There are people who voted against this. Then there are people who voted for it, but not for what will come as a result. Does it matter, in the end?
Thus I can't quite think of the right word, I guess bc the variations and nuances and subtleties paralyze me there in trying to come up with one. As I imagine is true for the nebulous "them" as well. Not that we should let that stop us, mind you: like Ukrainians fighting off the Russians, perhaps compassion is something that you offer when you can but not at the cost of doing what needs doing in the meantime.
And maybe that's why the word I am looking for is so hard to find: perhaps it doesn't exist at all, except in retrospect?
Perhaps Quisling?
That is an interesting word - not "just" another word for collaborator but "Aurally it contrives to suggest something at once slippery and tortuous." - thanks for sharing:-)