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by smitherfield 4031 days ago
"Racist" is essentially a term of abuse which no group or party has ever applied to itself.

To be a little pedantic, that's not strictly true; as Frost points out, "racist" was originally intended as a literal translation of the German völkisch, which the Nazi Party certainly self-described as. But I suppose you could say that's the exception which proves the rule.

2 comments

A similar point applies to the term 'Christian' and to the term 'Monarchist' - whereas it would be interesting to see the etymology of Marxist, Socialist or Communist.

'Capitalist' has the same issue, interestingly.

völkisch means folk-like, meaning 'of the people/liked by the people'. The term predates, massively, any idea of race. In fact we have the same word in Swedish (folklig) and it has no politically incorrect air about it.