The conservative chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday told the new liberal majority in a scathing email that they had staged a “coup” and conducted an “illegal experiment” when they voted to weaken her powers and fire the director of state courts.

Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, in two emails obtained by The Associated Press, said that firing and hiring a new state court director was illegal and ordered interim state court director Audrey Skwierawski to stop signing orders without her knowledge or approval.

  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The way conservatives choose to use the word coup makes it clear that they don’t know what that word means. Given their opposition to education, their lack of literacy is no surprise.

    • frozengriever@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s a deliberate campaign to muddle the meaning of words. Look at what conservatives have done to “fake news” or “woke” to see how they’re building a parallel Newspeak language

      • Asafum@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        Ever since I read that book I can’t see Fox news prime time as anything other than our “two minutes hate.” It’s disgusting that it’s real.

    • StarServal@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      They always do this. They always weaponize words with powerful meanings without understanding or caring about the meanings. They just know the elicit a strong negative emotional response and that’s all they care about.

      • cynar@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s worse than that. They both get the advantage of its venomous effect, and dilute its effect in the future. A coup used to be a major thing. Now, the word is thrown around all over the place. It’s only if you actually pay attention, you realise that one side is using it legitimately, while the other makes no sense. All most people hear is the newest buzz word insult, and tune it out.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      They don’t know what a lot of words mean, but in this case I think she’s just following the advice of Goebbels and accusing the other side of what she’s doing.

    • JdW@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Of course they do. It’s a common and effective propaganda instrument to lessen the effectiveness of the word so people take it less seriously when it’s used in the correct context. By underestimating their intelligence and cunning you are actually playing right into their hands.

      • Chocrates@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I saw a headline on Fox news the other day that said something like “State police drive into greeniac barricade” the other day. I had to look up greeniac but it is a coded term to make climate protestors seem insane. Fuck these propagandists.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They want to water it down, just like Trump did with “Fake News.”

      Around the time of the 2016 election, there was lots of coverage around literally-fake news sites targeting voters on social media. So Trump’s team adopted the 'Fake News" catchphrase to dilute the term and make people think it was a “both sides” issue.