“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” — Carl Jung
In wartime, soldiers adopt slang to ease stress, poke fun at absurd situations, and foster community. On the darker end of the emotional spectrum, these soldiers adopt slang to dehumanize enemies and sanitize the horrors of war. These reasons run the gamut of human emotions and illustrate the especially powerful role that slang plays within a language. Like war, politics inspires slang. And just like in war, these slang words foster a sense of community and provide levity to frustrating and absurd situations. These words are also used for delegitimizing and dehumanizing opponents. While denigrating an enemy may prove useful on the battlefield, it has the opposite effect in the realm of public discourse. In politics, delegitimzing people only serves to widen differences and create unequal relationships, fostering a system of winners and losers. As political slang becomes increasingly negative and pervasive in its attempts to denigrate the opponent, it reduces the scope of political discourse and limits the likelihood of equitable governance.
Slang: Identity and association
Slang is more than just an informal collection of words that exist within various subcultures. Slang, more than other elements of language has a…
