re: #837 iceweasel

The objection to the word ‘prog’ is that it is being used as an insult, by people who use it to refer not to progressives (they can’t even define it) but to everyone to the left of McCain.
It’s also not a word that I’ve ever seen anywhere—but stalker sites. And here.

This is a very basic point, and all the concern-trolling in the world and handwringing over the word ‘wingnut’ isn’t going to change it.

Ask them about how Avanti was treated up until late 2008. Things were far worse then “prog” being thrown about. Avanti who’s a moderate liberal Democrat was treated like he was a far-left Communist on a daily basis. And that’s just him as one example. Used to be that if anyone said anything to the left of McCain (as you note) he would be subjected to a swarm of criticism (some of it not very polite) and a slew of negative ratings.