Tell AP to stop calling protesters "dissidents"

[Liberty Belle]

This offensive term for people protesting against the Bush administration and the GOP theft of the election is being picked up by media all over the country, thanks to the Associated Press.

Please take a moment to send AP an e-mail at [e-mail] and urge them to stop using this offensive term for Democrats exercising rights of free assembly and speech. I sent them an e-mail noting that they never used this offensive term for Republicans who objected to Clinton administration policies, and stated that this is not an acceptable term for American citizens who are merely exercising our Constitutional rights.

It should be noted that in the Soviet Union and countries ruled by dictators, political dissidents have often been jailed for nothing more than speaking the truth.


Help get the word out by kicking this thread.

[idiosyncratic]

1. I wrote to CNN, ABC, CBS, and MSNBC earlier today

but I hadn't seen any AP story using that term.

[Kindigger]

3. How far is it from

dissident to insurgent?

[mcscajun]

10. Only as far as the distance between a picket sign and a rifle.

If we ever pick up weapons and take to the streets, then they'll call us insurgents...and worse.

[Liberty Belle]

2. Great! Let's all do the same & forward this idea to others.

Can we add this to the media blaster to reach all those little newspapers as well?

[RafterMan]

4. I like the term "dissident"

I think most associate it with the sort of nobility implied by your last paragraph.

I'll get worried when they start calling them "insurgents".

[idiosyncratic]

5. I don't like the term "dissident." It sounds like they are against

Democracy and counting every vote . . . which is all they are asking.

In my letters I called them "Patriotic Americans."

Since all the news stories were using the term, I assumed, and stated in at least one of my letters, that Karl Rove told them to use that instead of "activists" or another less inflammatory term.

[Cookie wookie]

6. saw that in an ap story about the Ohio protests

and thought it was strange. Since when are American protestors called "dissidents." That's the perjorative term that's been used by the media to describe groups of people in other nations who are trouble-makers.

God, I hate the American media.

:puke:

[donheld]

17. We are treated as dissidents

why not call it that. Do you all think that if AP etc. stops calling us dissidents Bushie and his right wing nuts will stop thinking of us as dissidents?

[RafterMan]

18. Yeah

and it's nothing to be ashamed of -- Soviet dissidents, Iranian dissidents -- all the good guys.

America deserves it's own dissidents, too.

Dissident. Go with it.

[peekaloo]

20. Me too. Although it sounds like a toothpaste for radicals.

}(

[madison2000]

7. I thought it was too strong at first, but its growing on me

and I think it is sadly descriptive about how conservative the media has become without anyone really noticing.

[Fleurs du Mal]

8. I heard this on Morning Sedition earlier today

Clearly they are trying re-frame us as "worthy of expedited shipping to Gitmo." This sounds like a next step towards declaring protest as a terrorist activity. I haven't had a chance to write yet but I plan on it.

[kip_russell]

9. i do not mind being labeled a dissident

by the media as long as it is properly referenced against my beliefs about both bushco and the fundies and the havoc that they wreak.

[newyawker99]

13. Hi kip_russell!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[merwin]

11. Dissident is just a word for

someone who is in disagreement :-)

[mattclearing]

12. Here is mine.

Subject: The Ukrainians were "protesters," and Americans are "dissidents"?

To Whom It May Concern:

The Associated Press didn’t call the Ukrainian protesters dissidents when they discovered evidence of vote fraud.

AP articles calling those who ask that Ohio’s voting irregularities be investigated dissidents are extremely insulting.

I wasn’t aware that the Associated Press had a vested interest in discrediting legitimate concerns raised about the way this election was carried out.

Discrediting these people is not the concern of your organization. Your concern is presenting unbiased fact.

Let the people judge who is objecting to the governing principles of American democracy. The investigation these courageous Americans ask for may show criminal wrongdoing.

If Republicans manipulated vote totals (and really, why else would they push for voting technology companies that were owned by Republican donor/felons to tabulate our votes?), these “dissidents” you speak of will have saved American democracy from its second organized coup in four years.

Thank you for your time.

[FredScuttle]

14. Definition of "dissident"

(from Merriam-Webster Online)

Main Entry: dis·si·dent
Pronunciation: -d&nt
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin dissident-, dissidens, present participle of dissidEre to sit apart, disagree, from dis- + sedEre to sit -- more at SIT
: disagreeing especially with an established religious or political system, organization, or belief


well then, call me a dissident.

[nickgutierrez]

15. The actual definition matters very little, if at all.

You and I know that "dissident" isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the word is linked to all sorts of political troublemakers throughout history. It would be a very hard thing to do to change the perceived meaning of the word. We're better off avoiding it, to be honest, and tearing a new one into anybody who chooses to describing us in that manner.

[FredScuttle]

16. Linked to famous troublemakers?

Like Andrei Sakharov?



I remember the first time I ever saw the word "dissident" was in a TIME magazine article about him. He inspired me then, as now. To be mentioned in the same breath as a man like this is something I don't deserve.

I would rather not cede yet another part of our language to the ignorance and paranoia being fanned by the right wing. It's up to us to reclaim that which is ours, labels like "liberal" and "progressive" and, yes, "dissident" without apology or capitulation.

Besides, the kind of people who would be turned off by a word like "dissident" aren't the kind of people I would want to impress in the first place. (Kind of the same logic as "why move the Democratic Party to the center in an attempt to attract voters who will never vote Democratic anyway?")

[comsymp]

19. Sakharov is a good example - try Googling "Soviet Dissident"

and it places us in pretty damn good company (agree w/your comment about "...in the same breath as...", btw)


Of course, I don't have a problem being labeled as a "troublemaker", either.


Frankly, the points made in your post reflect my own views right down the line. In fact, they deserve repeating:

I would rather not cede yet another part of our language to the ignorance and paranoia being fanned by the right wing. It's up to us to reclaim that which is ours, labels like "liberal" and "progressive" and, yes, "dissident" without apology or capitulation.

Besides, the kind of people who would be turned off by a word like "dissident" aren't the kind of people I would want to impress in the first place. (Kind of the same logic as "why move the Democratic Party to the center in an attempt to attract voters who will never vote Democratic anyway?")

[FredScuttle]

21. thanks for your kind words

it's about time we stopped moving backwards!

[spanone]

22. ...and stop calling pissed off Iraqis insurgents.

[Fiendish Thingy]

23. I'd rather be a dissident than "diffident"...

Maybe we can make this word our own...

A dissident patriot for Democracy in California.

[shance]

24. Thanks Liberty****Will do.

n/t

[Columbia]

25. Proud to be a dissident here

Anyone else agree?