Talking politics has its own lexicon. This can be a mixed blessing-more of a curse, to be sure. The word I’d like to take back from this type of conversation is long overdue, but let’s be very clear:
EVERYONE. HAS. AN. “AGENDA”.
Dictionary, please?
agenda: a list, plan, outline, or the like, of things to be done.
When I wake up in the morning, I have an agenda. I probably have several agendas occurring at once during my workday. Then I have an agenda at home which entails me doing laundry, feeding the dog, sitting down to break bread with the family, and resetting the house after it has been played in by two kids.
Every fucking organization in existence would not exist if there was no fucking agenda to guide them. In politics, it conjures up ideas of conspiracy, something obfuscated on purpose. Sure, there are those agendas too, but don’t be fucking fooled into thinking that one side has one and the other doesn’t.
It’s natural to have an agenda. And it makes me laugh cry when I hear this word being used to cudgel in our political discourse. Accusing someone of having an “agenda” is like pointing out that the earth revolves around the sun. It’s fairly fucking obvious and settled that this is true. And, when this word gets thrown around, it’s usually a painful case of projection as the person/group using the pejorative is pursuing its own agenda as well. I think the word gets used because it sounds secretive, perhaps invoking words like “propaganda”, of which only one side could be capable of producing.
My ass.
Please stop killing words for the sake of dissembling. I’m not asking. I’m begging.