The "ask" is from a group that is asking prominent Democrats to stop using these terms. Talk to people like normal human beings, not like they're in a graduate seminar.
Replies
A friend on the local school board went overboard with this jargon at a meeting once and wound up in the NY Post the next day. They lie in wait for this stuff.
aug 24, 2025, 2:02 am • 0 0 • view
Republicans will create fake bad-faith anger at absolutely any word liberals use, and if you haven't figured that out by now your only "expertise" must be in sticking your head in the sand.
aug 24, 2025, 2:10 am • 1 0 • view
Making woke a bad word was idiotic. Diversity is a good thing. Catering to white supremacists is a bad thing. Read between the lines. Stop allowing yourself to be triggered and stop being racist. It’s not nice and it’s wrong.
aug 24, 2025, 2:18 am • 1 0 • view
I don't see 'fascists' on the list. I sort of feel like they'd add it because it seems fancy & intellectual, but it's also very necessary right now.
aug 24, 2025, 2:05 am • 0 0 • view
I can understand most of those terms being on a list like that, but food insecurity? Come on.
aug 24, 2025, 2:00 am • 0 0 • view
Not that it matters but I totally agree. Dumb it down for me. I really enjoy plain language.
aug 24, 2025, 1:59 am • 0 0 • view
Damn Tom - you’ve really hit a nerve. Keep preaching.
aug 24, 2025, 2:00 am • 1 0 • view
I don’t necessarily disagree with what you’re saying. I also don’t know why “homeless,” for example is bad while “unhoused” is good. That said, if you base your vote on this stupid shit while we are staring into abject fascism, you are a hopeless fucking moron. This is like issue #1,984.
aug 24, 2025, 1:58 am • 8 0 • view
Because voters were raised on "homeless" and telling them "its unhoused now" is seen as telling them they were raised wrong and they're too stupid to exist in today's society. Why should they bother to learn the new term when they can just vote Republican and tune out?
aug 24, 2025, 2:03 am • 3 0 • view
For the last several decades, Democrats have smugly taken the moral highground, used fancy words to prove how superior they are to Republicans, and in the process allowed the Republicans to weaponize PC and “wokeness” to the point where it broke US democracy.
aug 24, 2025, 2:29 am • 0 0 • view
I think a lot of people are misreading Tom here. He isn't saying these terms are meaningless. He's saying Dem pols should stop using academic terminology when speaking to regular people. This shouldn't be that controversial, in my opinion... (I'm a professor who uses terms like this all the time.)
aug 24, 2025, 2:25 am • 201 13 • view
Now that uff tv wax bright up my attention. I see this elite language. I’m in a book club wit a bunch of 70 something ohd’s. I see it now. I can’t unsee it. It almost makes me want to quit a book club I’ve been in for 17 years.
aug 24, 2025, 2:44 am • 0 0 • view
White people are not fluent in code switching
aug 24, 2025, 5:33 am • 1 0 • view
My standard target language "age", when I write for lay audiences, is fourth grade.
aug 24, 2025, 3:26 am • 0 0 • view
Not speaking like a hillbilly is elitist
aug 24, 2025, 2:40 am • 1 0 • view
"Gavin Newsom knows that politics isn’t just about policy ...That’s why he’s been trolling Donald Trump online with parody memes and razor-sharp mockery that’s spread faster than any campaign ad ever could." Alternet article - MAGA is panicking as Trump finally meets his match | by Thom Hartmann
aug 24, 2025, 2:36 am • 1 1 • view
Is a similar analogy you would expect an ER Doc to use different language when telling a medical colleague an exact diagnosis where precision is crucial compared to updating a patient’s family in the waiting room where being understood and relatable to a general audience in key
aug 24, 2025, 2:40 am • 0 0 • view
There's one doctor I know of who probably regrets using the term crudite in his Senatorial campaign. Though he did land a sweet gig in the personality cult.
aug 24, 2025, 2:48 am • 0 0 • view
I think that's a fair analogy!
aug 24, 2025, 2:44 am • 0 0 • view
Name the last Democratic Presidential nominee who regularly used this terminology.
aug 24, 2025, 2:37 am • 8 0 • view
Biden is not president any more. He was not trying to be a dictator. We don't care what words his administration used. Get the fuck over it.
aug 24, 2025, 2:56 am • 4 0 • view
Is this directed at me?
aug 24, 2025, 3:22 am • 1 0 • view
Bourgeois people who want to appear clever and right on and ‘down with the kids’.
aug 24, 2025, 2:43 am • 0 0 • view
Which nationally prominent dem pols are using this language, though?
aug 24, 2025, 2:32 am • 4 0 • view
AOC, Pressley, Crow, among others
aug 24, 2025, 2:40 am • 1 0 • view
Isn’t it possible that they use language that is appropriate for their constituents? Just like someone representing, say rural TX would use language that could sound alienating to a person in Boston?
aug 24, 2025, 2:46 am • 2 0 • view
Can Tom (or anyone) show evidence that Democratic politicians are routinely using such language?
aug 24, 2025, 2:44 am • 0 0 • view
Bingo!
aug 24, 2025, 12:06 pm • 0 0 • view
Tom makes good points but he loses impact when he responds with absolute arrogance to anyone who dares to disagree. Its too bad bc he is really smart and has some good insights. His love of his cat is also endearing even when he is being obnoxious.
aug 24, 2025, 2:40 am • 1 0 • view
Most people disagreeing don't even understand his point, so a little impatience is understandable.
aug 24, 2025, 2:43 am • 1 0 • view
I'm getting people yelling at me now just for trying to better explain Tom's point, so... I get why he's annoyed about this shit.
aug 24, 2025, 2:46 am • 3 0 • view
I got blocked by someone I admire and often re-post, who said he never hears these words. I said they are often used on MSNBC and social media, and that I wish people would discuss more serious issues rather than what words are or are not ok. I guess that’s just intolerable heresy. Sad.
aug 24, 2025, 3:19 am • 1 0 • view
Tom isn't it more important to ask the Republican'ts to stop lying? I'd rather have complex words used and the truth. And yes even tho' by a lot of measures I have a large vocab I occasionally have to look up words used here. If words are used frequently we might forget others might not know them.
aug 24, 2025, 2:13 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes, stop using that left-hook in your boxing match. It's hard for your opponent to see it coming, it might cause him terrific pain, and it's just not gentlemanly. 🤬 Quit teaching Democrats how to lose in our new world order of mud.
aug 24, 2025, 2:03 am • 0 0 • view
Yeah, dumb it down. Look how well it worked for maga.
aug 24, 2025, 12:40 pm • 0 0 • view
The divide here is between whether Dems are underwater because of what the need to stop doing or what they need to start doing. All things equal, this might make a marginal difference. But the larger problem is that Dems aren't seen as fighting for anything. Third Way is just as lazy.
aug 24, 2025, 2:36 am • 0 0 • view
Or as Carville said, “faculty lounge talk”. Let’s be realistic, elections are about marketing candidates. When you’re marketing a product, the pitch is tailored to resonate with the target consumer. Nothing nefarious about that. Do we want to save democracy or argue about semantics?
aug 24, 2025, 2:24 am • 0 0 • view
It's not about the terms. It's about the concepts. people ignorant of or uncomfortable with what the terms refer to will dislike the terms because they hate the concept or the people.
aug 24, 2025, 2:05 am • 0 0 • view
Tell people they need to 'code switch', also an academic term? But any Southern liberalish person who still talks to their cousins could tell you how to do it.
aug 24, 2025, 2:08 am • 0 0 • view
Yeah I'm sure the people that have problems with these words are really just interested in clarity and ease. I bet they are dying to talk about patriarchy if we just used simpler words. It's definitely not an excuse to not have to deal with difficult issues at all.
aug 24, 2025, 2:09 am • 0 0 • view
Just conversational. Yep. That works very well for writing songs because you want people to get the story and you don't have much time. Default to a conversational style every time. Just listen to John Orine. He was a master at it.
aug 24, 2025, 1:57 am • 0 0 • view
Dude please go away with this. You are creating a distraction. Blocked
aug 24, 2025, 1:57 am • 1 0 • view
What are the proposed substitute words? What should I say instead of privilege for example?
aug 24, 2025, 1:57 am • 0 0 • view
Rich people
aug 24, 2025, 2:02 am • 0 0 • view
Lots of people have some kind of privilege and they aren’t necessarily rich
aug 24, 2025, 2:05 am • 0 0 • view
My point is if I said “people who get better treatment,” would that be better?
aug 24, 2025, 2:08 am • 0 0 • view
You are trying to talk to white people who do not feel privileged and there is no arguing with feelings. But everyone knows rich people get better treatment and most people are okay with that, because they admire rich people, up to a point. You want to sharpen that point.
aug 24, 2025, 2:25 am • 1 0 • view
No democrat actually talks like this. Even the ones that represent a state or district where they believe using these words would be no political risk. Any politician that takes this advice seriously would be letting everyone know they are not a serious person.
aug 24, 2025, 2:12 am • 0 0 • view
Muricans no speak good so speak like murican get elect
aug 24, 2025, 1:56 am • 2 0 • view
Back to life isn’t fair I guess. Harris tried to do this and the press flayed her for not providing specifics. Provide specifics and it’s a graduate seminar. The question isn’t about language it’s about how to make sure the language you want is what’s breaking through.
aug 24, 2025, 1:58 am • 0 0 • view
First of all, for reference, the actual list is here: www.thirdway.org/memo/was-it-... .
aug 24, 2025, 2:03 am • 0 0 • view
This whole thing strikes me as a tempest in a teapot. Really, if a word actually *is* toxic, *don’t use it if you are campaigning for office.* Use some other, less toxic, wording to market yourself. Simple.
aug 24, 2025, 2:03 am • 4 0 • view
Then again, this is also the people who helped five us Hillary in 2016 and a senile Biden in 2024 smugly and arrogantly lecturing us all about what is and is not viable politics. So keep that in mind.
aug 24, 2025, 2:03 am • 2 0 • view
Biden should have announced he wouldn't run for a second term, and he should have done it sometime between August of 2020 and February of 2021. Ron Klain might be the person to blame. It's not "Democrats."
aug 24, 2025, 2:31 am • 0 0 • view
You ignore 2020 when Biden won. Or 2018 when centrists took back the House while progressives didn’t flip a single seat.
aug 24, 2025, 2:29 am • 4 0 • view
The words and phrases themselves strike me as ranging from genuinely odd and offputting to ones I myself use regularly (and don’t think that odd). I don’t think they are all equally toxic. Some of them I have even heard righties use. I suspect for many of them, it will strongly depend on context.
aug 24, 2025, 2:03 am • 1 0 • view
But overall, a tempest in a teapot. I think finding the right candidates with the right policy message matters more than obeying anyone’s magic list of words/phrases to avoid at all cost.
aug 24, 2025, 2:03 am • 1 0 • view
But hey, Tom seems to derive pleasure from being a curmudgeon (for a long time he even proudly described himself thus) sermonizing liberals, and I doubt anything I post here will change that.
aug 24, 2025, 2:03 am • 0 0 • view
Under Biden the best investments in America and Americans in your lifetime. Lowest unemployment, higher wages, highest job creation. I don’t get why Progressives and MAGA find them ‘boring’ accomplishments.
aug 24, 2025, 2:54 am • 0 0 • view
Yet he was senile and the Democrats got caught with their pants down covering it up. After campaigning for years on how the GOP couldn’t be trusted, and how fitness for office was a key characteristic for any candidate to have. He shouldn’t have run for re-election. Full stop.
aug 24, 2025, 3:00 am • 0 0 • view
Again. You ignoring all the accomplishments is silly.
aug 24, 2025, 3:38 am • 0 0 • view