Re: Unamerican

----- Original Message -----
From: <bjm10@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2000 9:23 AM
Subject: Re: Unamerican


> On Tue, 2 May 2000, Kristian Jensen wrote:
>
> > People who lean towards the left in their political alignment
> > seem to refer to 'danskhed' (Danishness) as being liberal. Those
> > that align themselves more to the right seem to refer to 'danskhed'
> > as being nationalistic. Otherwise, both agree that typical 'dansk'
>
> That's pretty much how "unamerican" is used.  "Whatever my political
> group doesn't like".
Yes. That comes close. The term got a bad name from the
right wing House of Representatives Committee that used it
so much. Yet it is now as much used by the other side of the
spectrum: racialism, elitism, etc. are commonly called
"unAmerican" on the grounds that they go against a tradition
of tolerance. In my perception, the term is not being very
much used today. One more often hears positive references
to "the American Way" or the like.

The term is IMO not much related to patriotism or to any
comparison with other countries. It's more centered on
various versions of how the USA should conduct its
own internal political affairs.