Some New Words to Consider

sandboxers -- People living and playing in the carefully crafted American sandbox, oblivious to anything outside. These are people who maintain their sense that they live in a real, live ``Leave It To Beaver'' TV sitcom America. A form of self-delusion and attentional filtering. The next DSM manual will surely (not) have this as a category of mental disorder. Note that this does not include people who consider how things should be and then work toward that from the reality.

fronters -- People who know what is going on but put on a front that they have no clue. They may be participants in the activity or may just be aware of it and keep it to themselves. As in, ``At first I thought he was a sandboxer, but now I am pretty sure he is a fronter.''

hocput -- An exclamation. Means roughly, ``if some person or group is invading my privacy to hear what I said or thought I'll be damned if I care when they then pretend to be offended, shocked, or insulted.'' For example, ``They raped that thought from my brain and now want to pretend it means what? Hocput!'' Or in a historical sense, ``They put MLK Jr. under cointelpro harassment and surveillance and then wanted me to feed at the trough of their dirty gossiping garbage? Hocput.'' More generally a term of disgust at an utter disregard for the larger picture, a lack of any sense of proportionality, and obliviousness to rank hypocrisy.

knaccept -- To accept in the sense that one knows clearly now what is the case. The term means precisely that, and has none of the baggage of the usual word ``accept'' with its connotations of resignation and at times even approval. ``I knaccept what is going on, but I surely do not accept it otherwise.'' Or, ``You need to reach the stage of knacceptance.''

semiosmear -- A semiotic smear. That is, a smear that is carried out with symbols, signs, and associations rather than by ever actually saying anything directly. Semiosmears are popular with some groups because they are deniable and because there need be no rational or factual basis behind them. They can be difficult to counter because they depend on access to media to carry out on a large scale, because they have little to do with logic, and because they are deniable. If a semiosmear were put into direct words it would typically sound ridiculous. If the target of a semiosmear accurately describes the smear he may be called a crazy kook. There is also a large contingent of people -- who apparently failed to get anything out of any introductory literature class they ever took -- who think semiosmears simply do not exist. [The CIA is known to have studied and used such techniques in its South and Central American covert operations.] Example usage: ``If you credibly accuse the U.S. government of crimes against humanity you had better expect a semiosmear campaign in response.'' Semiosmears can also be used as a part of semiorationalizations.

mediocricrat -- A person of mediocre abilities in some area who finds that by following the party line as a ``team player'' he will be rewarded and praised for his meager abilities. He can stand up to far more talented people because he has a cheering section. The term is only really pejorative when the person has no clue that this is actually going on, or when the ``team'' is devoted to committing or covering up vile actions like war crimes. As in, ``Ewen Cameron was probably a mediocricrat.''

epistemalleability -- A philosophy with no concern for what actually is or what actually happened. If you were to ask how many layers of lies a person or group following this philosophy has piled onto the truth you would be working from faulty premises. There is no bottom to their lies, and the truth to them is just a special case of a lie -- if they were to even accept the distinction. From their point of view there is no truth to cover up. The truth from someone else's point of view, as in what actually happened, might be dangerous to them but only because it might inconvenience them and people might tend to believe it. They sometimes speak what others might call the truth, but usually as part of a larger lie.

decency block -- A mental block many people have in understanding that whatever sense of decency and morality they may have does not necessarily mean a thing to other people. Those other people could be fellow citizens, leaders, or even acquaintances. To overcome the decency block one needs to knaccept that there are prominent people in one's own society who think nothing of torture, rape, theft, and exploitation for their own profit and amusement. Such torturers often front as sandboxers.
stagecident -- A staged incident created by any person, group, or agency for the purpose of influencing public perceptions and opinions. Unlike publicity stunts, stagecidents are covertly orchestrated. They may be orchestrated directly, or indirectly by influencing, goading, and manipulating the direct participants. Press coverage can be an important aspect of stagecidents.
controp -- The controlled opposition. A group which faces potential opposition may decide to create its own opposition to ensure that there is no real threat. Members or sympathizers of the group create a new group to distract from the true opposition or to preempt any true opposition and give the illusion of choice. Alternately -- or in concert -- they may co-opt and subvert any existing opposition. A controp group can also be used to discredit the real opposition by association.