More Americans have a positive reaction to ‘progressive’ than ‘capitalism.’

[Jimaz]

From Think Progress: More Americans have a positive reaction to ‘progressive’ than ‘capitalism.’

Despite Fox News host Glenn Beck’s conspiracy theory about progressivism being a “cancer� that is secretly plotting to destroy the country, Americans have a largely positive view of the word “progressive.� Meanwhile, “capitalism� appears to not have fared so well following the Great Recession. A new Pew poll of nine political words and phrases found that a strong majority — 68 percent — of Americans have a positive reaction to the word “progressive,� while only 52 percent have the same response to “capitalism�.

Of course, capitalism and progressivism are not opposites, but perhaps Americans view one as the cause of the economic crisis, and the other as the solution. ThinkProgress has noted that the tea party movement hasn’t proven popular in recent polls either, with socialism and even the Internal Revenue Service [[IRS) receiving more favorable ratings.

The "militia" numbers are interesting too.

Lately I've been curious about how word frequencies change over time. Does anyone know of any good websites that track such things? I'm not thinking of poll-based data like this story but more like web spiders that count word frequency in recent news articles, etc.

I know about Word Spy but that's focused more on emergent rather than existing words.

[rb336]

and that from perhaps THE most reactionary of all polling orginizations

[oladub]

From Think Progress: More Americans have a positive reaction to ‘progressive’ than ‘capitalism.’The "militia" numbers are interesting too.

Lately I've been curious about how word frequencies change over time. Does anyone know of any good websites that track such things? I'm not thinking of poll-based data like this story but more like web spiders that count word frequency in recent news articles, etc.

I know about Word Spy but that's focused more on emergent rather than existing words.

I wonder why the word 'progressivism' wasn't used instead of 'progressive'. Socialism, libertarianism, and capitalism all have 'isms' attatched. I favor 'progressive' but equate 'progressivism' with liberalism. Maybe they chose progressive on purpose to attain the desired poll results.

I'm not sure what the difference is between civil liberties and civil rights but good to see they scored so high. Also, it was good to see that state rights are so popular.

There was a poll a few months ago that showed socialist support quite a bit higher. I wonder why the difference.

Came across the following semi-related graph of public trust in government from
Newsweek.

[rb336]

I wonder why the word 'progressivism' wasn't used instead of 'progressive'. Socialism, libertarianism, and capitalism all have 'isms' attatched. I favor 'progressive' but equate 'progressivism' with liberalism. Maybe they chose progressive on purpose to attain the desired poll results.

Hardly. Pew is the most right-wing of the pollsters, if they wanted to achieve the "desired result" [[backing up their political views) they would have used the "ism"

More likely they didn't use "progressivism" for the same reason no one else uses it - it's a very clumsy sounding and looking word that few understand

I'm not sure what the difference is between civil liberties and civil rights but good to see they scored so high. Also, it was good to see that state rights are so popular.

Most people prbably don't know the difference between civil liberties and civil rights. My take is that civil liberties are what the government can't do, whereas civil rights are more basic and universal. Most people probably don't really know what "states rights" means, either

There was a poll a few months ago that showed socialist support quite a bit higher. I wonder why the difference.

because it was conducted by Mother Jones?

[Papasito]

REIGN IN THE PROGRESSIVES

Socialism, libertarianism, and capitalism all have 'isms' attatched. I favor 'progressive' but equate 'progressivism' with liberalism. Maybe they chose progressive on purpose to attain the desired poll results.

[gazhekwe]

Social and Capital are not the same kind of words as Liberal, Progressive and Libertarian. They need the "ism" to put them into that movement category. The other three are already there. If you add "ism" to them it is redundant.

[oladub]

Social and Capital are not the same kind of words as Liberal, Progressive and Libertarian. They need the "ism" to put them into that movement category. The other three are already there. If you add "ism" to them it is redundant.

I made an error in stating that the word libertaianism was used. It wasn't. No 'ism'.
However, I disagree that liberalism, progressivism, and libertarianism are redundant words. Wickipedia defines "Liberalism as the belief in the importance of liberty and equality. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles" Progressivism is a political attitude favoring or advocating changes or reform.""Libertarianism is a political theory that advocates the maximization of individual liberty in thought and action and the minimization or even abolition of the state."

[gazhekwe]

They also believe in preventating things. Redundant spellings are rampant.

[Papasito]

What we're seeing in Greece is the end result of the progressive movement
This is the end result. Throw in all of Europe as well for that matter since Great Britain's debt is going to surpass Greece before long. This is what happens when you run out of other people's money. You get riots in the streets, an economy that makes our current one look great, and double digit unemployment as a mainstay.

This is the end result of the progressive movement.
More than ever it really is a total disease of the mind because the 'progress' leads to ruins.

[ghettopalmetto]

What we're seeing in Greece is the end result of the progressive movement
This is the end result. Throw in all of Europe as well for that matter since Great Britain's debt is going to surpass Greece before long. This is what happens when you run out of other people's money. You get riots in the streets, an economy that makes our current one look great, and double digit unemployment as a mainstay.

This is the end result of the progressive movement.
More than ever it really is a total disease of the mind because the 'progress' leads to ruins.

Uh, what?

Your hair is on fire. No need to panic--just stop, drop, and roll.

[rb336]

No, papa, what we are seeing in Greece is what happens when a country doesn't make anything