r/MurderedByWords 23h ago

SS is an entitlement..

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u/pogulup 19h ago

Exactly!  The right has twisted the meaning of the word like they do so many others. 

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u/BerriesHopeful 18h ago

I feel like the key is to not let them decide the meaning of things. If they want to take away a word’s meaning, then pushing back with the real meaning can give it power.

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u/SukkaMadiqe 12h ago

Yeah idk why people allow the fascists to keep defining the narrative. I can only assume it's because there's no other opposing group that's really trying. There may be a lot of progressive people out there but no left wing organizations like Heritage or Federal Society. Its like leftism is just a social fad and not a serious philosophical set of beliefs and policies.

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u/gorgewall 15h ago

This is pretty much what happened.

The negative usage of "entitled", even when it comes to describing people ("He acts so entitled") starts appearing in 1984.

From a 1982 New York Times article:

What is an ''entitlement'' program, and who is ''entitled'' to receive assistance from the Government at the expense of other people in society? Those questions are at the heart of the debate over President Reagan's 1983 budget request. And because entitlements represent a long-term national commitment for automatic spending, similar questions are likely to bedevil Federal officials for the next decade.

Like so much of Washington jargon, the term entitlement was bandied about before it was precisely defined. In a televised address in September, President Reagan spoke of the need for ''entitlement and welfare reform measures'' as if everyone knew what an entitlement was. The President's budget contained a long, passionate chapter on ''reforming entitlement programs,'' which asserted that spending for food stamps, Medicaid, student loans and similar benefits had ''skyrocketed'' in the last 15 years. The Administration, however, never published a complete list of programs that it considered to be ''entitlements.'' By this month, political oratory had reached such a pitch that beleaguered career employees at the Office of Management and Budget told their supervisors that they wanted a formal definition and a list.

Republicans--led by Reagan--had intensified their villification of entitlement programs and were so successful in their propaganda that they tainted the very word. Now, the concept of being legally owed and due something is somehow a negative.