Tag Archive: language


Is it sexist to call a senator a “little girl”? Republican Carl Paladino, New York gubernatorial candidate, doesn’t think so. In fact, he has “no regrets” about calling N.Y. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand “Chuck Schumer’s little girl.”

When pressed on the issue on T.V., Paladino denied that his remarks were sexist and then simply walked out on the interview to avoid further questioning. Paladino insisted that he was simply referring to Gillibrand’s lack of a mind of her own when casting votes, although, as Irin points out at Jezebel, he could have chosen a number of other non-sexist adjectives in that case: “Pawn. Puppet. Pushover.” But he went with “Schumer’s little girl.” Degrading much?

Paladino has already received plenty of Change.org coverage for his various offensive acts: Forwarding emails with the phrase “Run n___ers, run” and depicting the Obamas as “pimp and whore.” Calling LGBTQ people “disgusting.” Saying we should imprison poor people to teach them “hygiene.”

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Climate change deniers make it their business to attack global warming realists in every cobwebbed corner of the Internet. Anyone who has ever written in support of scientific evidence knows this first-hand.

But when do aggressive emails and comments cross this line? This has been an issue in so many areas of our modern life. Sure, the occasional controversial academic could get used to attacks, but in the climate change arena, the discourse is getting seriously out of hand.

When a steady stream of vitriolic hate is directed at a whole pack of prominent scientists whenever they dare venture beyond obscure journals, I think this line is surely crossed. Some of it is almost certainly from individual crazies. Others suggest these attacks are orchestrated, and blogger Tim Lambert notes that one high-profile spokesperson for the climate denial machine regularly publishes the email addresses of “target” scientists. Regardless of the source, I fear it is only a matter of time before abusive words translate to abusive actions.

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