Why the Right and Left Make Political Terms Meaningless

When political terms are turned into insults, they lose meaning—which benefits the people those terms are meant to describe. As the names for political positions weaken, people find it easier and easier to claim they represent the American people and the people they demonize do not.

Rather than make up my own definitions, as is surprisingly popular online, I’ll share the essential definitions from Google’s primary source, Oxford Languages, then add my take in a quick comment.

Capital

wealth in the form of money or other assets owned by a person or organization or available or contributed for a particular purpose such as starting a company or investing.

Anything a capitalist can claim and sell is capital. For most capitalists today, that means money and the things that can be sold for money. For extreme capitalists, people are also capital—they think we should be able to sell our bodies and our organs. By implication, if we fall into debt, they think we should have to sell our bodies or our organs to pay our debts. The idea that people are capital produced indentured servitude, debtor’s prisons, and slavery.

Capitalism

an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners…