In last week’s announcement about creating a lexicon of words whose meanings are often divisive, misunderstood and poorly understood, I said I had collected 113 words, and asked for your suggestions.
That number now stands at 189, thanks to inputs from readers Pramod Biligiri, Joseph John, Kabir, Aastha (last name withheld because I haven’t got her permission to use it) and others.
Many people also wrote in to say they like the name Media Buddhi A-Z for the project. So that’s what it will be.
Like any such process, some of these words can be collapsed into others and some will not withstand scrutiny when I actually get down to work. That’s as it should be, so this is still a provisional list.
There is one challenge though. Many of these words mean different things to different people, and their meaning can also alter based on the context they appear in.
How to deal with that?
As another reader told me in a text message,
Words come with their own baggage … stigma, history of folks being disenfranchised, discriminated against. So [you] would need some context-setting ideally.
She further said,
Some mental health advocates would say it’s OK to use [these words] as an '“in-group”, i.e., to reclaim that language … or maybe that it’s better to tell people you’re using as a literary device with zero judgement.
I thought it was important to include her words here as a reminder to me. So yes, the videos that I will make for all the words will come with their own context-setting. And the agenda is always to ensure that we have the tools to have good, honest conversations.
Here’s the new list.
A
Accusation
Adivasi
Ad-supported
Ad hominem
Algorithm and Algorithm bias
Anonymous
Anti-intellectualism
Anti-national
Anxiety
Arnab
Authoritarian
B
Backfire effect
Bahujan
Bakwas or bullshit
Blame
Bhakt
Bias
Both-sidesism or false equivalency
Brinksmanship
Bubble
Buddhi
C
Cancel culture
Capitalism
Casteism
Casteist slur
Certainty
Changing your mind
Checks-and-balances
Chilling effect
Cishet
Cognitive bias
Cognitive dissonance
Commie
Computational Propaganda
Confirmation bias
Consensus
Conspiracy theories
Context or casuistry
Context collapse
Conservative
Corruption
Critical reasoning
Crony capitalism
D
Dalit
Decolonising (our minds)
Demagoguery
Disinformation
Decisions
Delhi-centric
Denial
Defamatory
Disabled
Disproportionate
Dogwhistling
Donor-funded
E
Echo chamber (filter bubbles and silos)
Egalitarian
Evidence
Extreme speech (or hate speech)
F
Facts
Fake news
Fascist
Federalism
Feelings
Feminazi (or any word with ‘Nazi’)
Feminist/Feminism
Framing effects
Fringe
G
Gendered
Genocide
Government accountability
Godi media
H
Hate speech
Hesitancy
History
Homophobia
Humour (or jokes)
I
Identity
Identity politics
Ideology
Incendiary
Information War (also Influence Operations)
Intellectual honesty
Intuitions
Invisible
Islamophobia
IT Cell
J
Joke (or humour)
Journalism
K
Khan Market people
Knowledge
L
Lesser evil
Loaded terms
Losing control
Losers’ Raj
Language
LGBTQIA+
Liberal bias
Libtard
Lies
Love Jihad
Lutyens Media
M
Majoritarianism
Manhood and masculinity
Mansplaining
Marital rape
Maya
Mass media
Mental health (or Sanity)
MetaData
Minority appeasement
Media
Moral corruption
Moral policing
N
Nationalism
Nativist
Nuance
Normalisation
Narrative
Newsworthy
O
Objectivity
OBC
Othering
P
Panna Pramukh or page handlers
Patriotism
Platforms
Process as punishment
Positioning
Post-Truth
Permission
Piggybacking or Trojan Horsing
Politics
Policy
Propaganda
Pseudoscience
Pronoun
Punching up or punching down
Q
Queer
Questions
R
Radicalisation
Racist
Rationalisation
Rationality
Reflexive Control
Repetition
Relativism
Reservations
Rules-based order
S
Sanghi
Sanity
Satire
Savarna
Scientific temper
SC/ST
Sealioning
Shared values
Shitposting
Social democracy
Social justice
Social media
Sexual harassment
Sniper targeting
Subjectivity
Subscription-based
Surgical Strike
T
Tabloid
TERF
Theocracy
Topic selection
Transparency
Trishanku
Trolls
Truth
Truthiness
Tukde Tukde Gang
TV news
U
Unbiased
Unitary state
Urban Naxal
V
Vague words
Victim
Victim Mindset
Vigilante
W
Weaponisation
Welfare state
Whataboutery
Woke
X
Xenophobia
Y
Yellow journalism
Z
Zoning laws
Do continue to write in with suggestions. Let’s make this list larger!
Another word that comes to mind is 'astroturfing'.