Our Terminology

This may be helpful to understand my sometimes unorthodox terminology. I am not a native English speaker, after all.

In alphabetical order:

Bullfrogs: American critics (usually from the religious right fringe or libertarians) of German/European circumstances of which they haven't bothered to acquire even the most basic of knowledge.

The term "bullfrog" refers to the inflating and mouthing appearance of the animal and, last but not least, to its obtuse-looking mien, thus aptly describing the self-righteous outrage of same critics over things that don't concern them and of which they haven't a clue.

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Dialie: Dia-lie stands for the dialogue/dialog with Muslims demanded by Gutmenschen.

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Fishwrap is a member of the media, of which I disapprove. It is, of course, purely metaphorical. One can not use the -- say -- BBC for anything useful, not even for wrapping fish, but it's still a fishwrap in our specific context.

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Fremdscham can be translated as "extrinsic shame". It is the feeling I am experiencing if somebody belonging to a group whose membership I, voluntarily or involuntarily, share (for example Germans, women or "conservatives") says something moronic.

It is a frequent occurrence.

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German with a migration background is the politically correct definition of a Turk or Arab with a German passport used by the German authorities and media. I am using it sarcastically.

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Gutmenschen: German term for that obnoxious brand of busybodies. The Goode family covers an important aspect, but only ONE aspect, of that kind, as the English term do-gooders is only a very inadequate translation. Gutmenschen are "outraged" (empört) and "concerned, dismayed and traumatised" (betroffen) at -- say -- the violent death of filthy dictators and their offspring when they never had any time for the victims of same dictators.

They are, too, prime examples of what the sociologist Wolfgang Pohrt once called the "Michel Syndrome" and which they are calling themselves "our special relationship with Israel", namely the obsession to "stand with praise and censure at Israel's side as ethical probation officer to keep the victim from committing a second offence" (Pohrt, translated by me).

This is coupled with a healthy sense of "Am Deutschen Wesen soll die Welt genesen" (The German Being Will Heal The World), even though they don't call it that anymore. They STILL know what is good for others, although they have changed their strategy.

America, not Saddam Hussein or Adolfdingbat are the source of all Evil, and their Kapitalismuskritik (critique of capitalism) invokes such quaint terms like Raubtierkapitalismus (predator capitalism) or "a swarm of locusts" for American investors. Those cherished traditional German idioms like "raffender/greedy" versus "schaffender/constructive" capitalism experience a happy revival under the reign of the Gutmenschen, only that the implications ("greedy" capitalism =Jewish, "constructive" capitalism =Aryan) are shunned. Yet and just.

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Gutmenschentum is the noun derived from Gutmensch.

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"it thinks": The playwrite Rainer Werner Fassbinder, in "Garbage, the City and Death", described antisemitism by letting his antisemitic protagonist say: "Es denkt in mir" -- "It thinks inside me." Fassbinder has been accused of antisemitism based on that play, however, that description is very apt.

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Ms.: If I am using that term myself and not quoting somebody else, it is an expression of contempt, as is the usage of the female suffix "-esse".

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Yobbofication: Yobbofication is derived from the English English epithet "yobbo". It describes the voluntary abandonment of everything that might be associated with traditionalism, good taste and dignity.

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By the way THIS may help to understand certain Germanisms.






Read this to understand my sometimes unorthodox terminology (I am not a native English speaker, after all), and read this to understand my linking-policy.

Here I have outlined the rules for commenting at this blog.