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Saturday, July 14, 2018

Fashionable use of terms without understanding meaning...

With every person with time to waste and a smart phone becoming a political opinion giver, it is important for certain words and their meanings to be understood before they are used. 

Terrorist a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.

Fundamentalist a person who believes in the strict, literal interpretation of scripture in a religion. "religious fundamentalists"

Bigot a person who is intolerant towards those holding different opinions.

Activist a person who campaigns to bring about political or social change.

Environmentalist An environmentalist is a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"

Maoist a follower of the communist doctrines of Mao Zedong*. 

Communist a person who supports or believes in the principles of communism which are common ownership of production, money and absence of social class. A communist need not be a Maoist.

Leftist a person with left-wing political views. Left-wing politics supports social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. A leftist need not be a communist. 

Liberal Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty and equality.

Right wing - Right-wing politics hold that certain social orders and hierarchies are inevitable, natural, normal or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics or tradition

These terms are not to be confused with each other. Sometimes some of these terms are used to mean the other by people who don't use their google search (all the above definitions are pulled out of Google by the way). These terms are not same, they don't mean the same, they cannot be the same. 

Additionally in the Indian context, there are a few other terms that are thrown about - 

Naxalite a member of an armed revolutionary group advocating Maoist communism. 

Hindutva person - someone who supports an ideology seeking to establish the hegemony of Hindus and the Hindu way of life. 

I will additionally define, "Moron" - all those who use these terms above  without having understood the differences in their meaning. 

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