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A lexicon of larceny and lies
From from ‘astroturf’ to ‘centrism,’ SOLOMON HUGHES shares his newly created ‘dictionary of contemporary political language’
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
Special report by PEOPLE’S WORLD
NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
POLITICS generates its own word meanings and phrasing, so as a service to understanding, here are some of my notes towards a dictionary of contemporary political language. Let’s start unpicking the jargon, both old and new, at “A” and work on.
Astroturf
A campaign that seems like something from the grassroots. But look closer and it is totally artificial.
Groups that have a lot of money, some grand titles but few actual members — like, say, the Taxpayers’ Alliance — are always worth inspecting to see if they are astroturf, fake campaigns designed to covertly push their funders’ interests by pretending to be “popular” spontaneous “from-below” campaigns.
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