Wingnut (politics)

"Wingnut" (sometimes wing-nut) is a pejorative American political term referring to a person who holds extreme, and often irrational, political views.

For other uses, see Wingnut.

Definitions

According to Merriam-Webster, it is "a mentally deranged person" or "one who advocates extreme measures or changes: radical.[1]

David M. Herszenhorn of The New York Times has defined a "wing nut" as "a loud darling of cable television and talk radio whose remarks are outrageous but often serious enough not to be dismissed entirely."[2]

In his book Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America author and columnist John Avlon defined a wingnut as, "someone on the far-right wing or far-left wing of the political spectrum—the professional partisans, the unhinged activists and the paranoid conspiracy theorists. They're the people who always try to divide rather than unite us".[3]

See also

References
  1. "wing nut"
  2. Alan Grayson, the Liberals’ Problem Child, David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times, 2009-10-31
  3. R.M., Six questions for John Avlon , The Economist, 2010-5-16
  • The dictionary definition of wingnut at Wiktionary
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.