"The communist and feminazi caste": the art of playing with concepts

On the chessboard of Catalan and Spanish politics, words have ceased to be mere vehicles of information and have become symbolic projectiles. In recent months, we have witnessed a resurgence of terms that seemed to be an inheritance from other eras: the Popular Party of Catalonia (PPC) referred to the budget project as "Soviet and communist" – and last week the general secretary of the Populars, Juan Fernández, returned to this, referring to the housing policies of the Generalitat – and the leader of the PPC, Alejandro Fernández, has described the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, as a "Marxist with a tie". All this while from the business sector, Josep Sánchez Llibre, president of Foment del Treball, described the veto on the purchase of housing for speculation, which is still ongoing, as "pro-communist".According to political scientist Jordi Mir, in conversation with ARA, we are faced with concepts that have been "altered" throughout history. Mir maintains that many of these definitions are born in scenarios far removed from their origin in order to "turn them around to be negative." The objective is not reasoned debate, but rather "to activate an imaginary that people have more or less in place." In Mir's words: "When Sánchez Llibre or other representatives speak in this way, it is because they are very convinced that by using this concept they will activate an imaginary that will make people think 'this cannot be'."This tactic directly recalls the political scene in the United States, where, as the expert points out, "the disqualification of public representatives of the Democratic Party as socialists is very common." There, accusing Obama or Biden of socialism seeks to make the population identify the leader with the historical enemy of the Cold War, he highlights. However, Mir clearly differentiates the situation here: "It is more difficult for this to happen here with socialism because the Socialist Party has not abandoned its concept." Therefore, to generate the same "shock" and evoke Stalinism or the Soviet Union, terms like communist or pseudo-Soviet.This phenomenon has been widely studied by international authors such as the American linguist George Lakoff, who in his theory of framing or framing, argues that words activate mental structures (frames) that determine our view of the world. If the dominant frame is that of fear of totalitarianism, any social policy will be trapped under the Soviet label, preventing a rational analysis of the measure. It is what Mir defines as the "dispute over concepts": who has the ability to make people think of one reality and not another when they hear a word?From "feminism" to "feminazi"

One of the most significant changes in this semantic dispute is found in the feminist movement. Mir recalls that, during the 80s and 90s, "presenting a woman as a feminist was a way to disqualify her" because they were not considered "respectable" people. However, today feminism has gained a positive hegemony in society, she states.Faced with this change, the neologism feminazi has emerged. Mir analyzes it precisely: "I can no longer call a feminist woman to discredit her because it seems to be well received... What can I call her to create this negative imaginary? Well, let's combine her with nazi". It is, thus, an attempt "to raise the tone of the imaginary" to recover the insulting character that the original word has lost, highlights the expert.The "ultraconservative" and the "caste"

This intense discursive battle is not one-way. Political consultant Luis Arroyo –famous in recent months for having been Zapatero's spokesperson– recalls, in conversation with ARA, that democratic politics is, in its very essence, "the struggle between narratives". In this sense, Arroyo points out that the concept conservative does not in itself have a negative connotation in society, but rather that the real political problem arises "when the addition of ultra or far-right" is placed on it". Faced with the current context of uncertainty, the left intentionally tries to place its adversaries' discourse "on the level of the ultra, the extremist, the eccentric". The objective is, he explains, to activate a feeling of social rejection, since the term ultra today has a profoundly pejorative meaning that evokes "what is beyond, what exceeds the limits of what is reasonable". Thus, formations like Vox or Aliança Catalana are punished every time they are associated with it, or even Junts per Catalunya, described as "the independentist far-right" last May by Emiliano García-Page, president of Castilla-La Mancha, in a warning to the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for his pacts with Carles Puigdemont's party.On the other hand, the play of concepts reaches its maximum complexity with the so-called "intersecting narratives", a tool that, Arroyo highlights, is no longer exclusive to any ideological bloc but rather becomes a characteristic of populism. This strategy is based on the dichotomy of "the virtuous people versus the elite or the "casta governing and corrupt". According to the expert, it is a framework used by both the right and the left. In the Spanish case, Podem made an "extraordinary use of the concept cast, which worked very well", while, at the other extreme, leaders like the President of the United States, Donald Trump, adopt exactly the same language and identify with this "virtuous people" against a corrupt elite. They are the two sides of the same coin in the dispute over the interpretation of reality.