yet more on the "a" word

[Volokh, Eugene]

    My point wasn't simply that people use the word "authoritarian" to
describe those who disagree with them; it was that people use the word
"authoritarian" to describe those who disagree with them *and not those who
do the same thing, but on the speaker's side of the political divide*.

    Is it news that people do this?  Well, of course not.  But I had hoped
that law professors, on a law professors' discussion list, would do better
than that.

    Eugene

-----Original Message-----
From: Judith Baer [mailto:JBAER at POLITICS.TAMU.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 10:53 AM
To: CONLAWPROF at listserv.ucla.edu
Subject: Re: yet more on the "a" word



Eugene wrote:

But the funny thing is that somehow people who are generally on the Left
almost always apply the label "authoritarian" to what the Right does, and
not to what the Left does.



Look, is it news to anybody that people usually use the word to describe
those who disagree with them?




Eugene again:

Prof. Ides may not have done this, but I've seen many posts that have.
That, I think, is part of why so many people bristle at the use of the term:
It seems not to be a tool of evenhanded analysis, but rather a political
device that is used to attack conservatives.


And not the other way around?  My memory goes back further than that of some
others on the list, but I remember hearing that label applied (posthumously)
to FDR and (contemporaneously) to LBJ and the Warren Court.

Judy Baer

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