DEI seems to have taken over from Woke as the all-purpose MAGA terms for “this is bad”. DEI stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion. As with Woke, which seems to an accusation of using rational thought, DEI seems like it would be difficult to interpret as bad. Saying that you strongly oppose diversity, equity, and inclusion is a pretty frank admission of your values.

This use of DEI seems to translate directly as “insufficiently racist”.

  • AngryishHumanoid@lemmynsfw.com
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    14 days ago

    Woke, trans, dei, critical race theory, and dozens if not hundreds more if you keep going backwards. It’s the same playbook, new boogie man to scare idiots into voting against their own interests.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    14 days ago

    The messaging used to be attempts to reframe the bullshit positions of the American Right as good: “Family values,” “rule of law.”

    Now it’s reframing the positions of anyone else as bad. Rage bait works better.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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      14 days ago

      “Fiscally conservative” is another. While having a history of economic disasters under Republicans.

  • wakko@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    In 2025, they’re mad about DEI

    In 2022, they were mad about woke.

    In 2020, they were mad about BLM.

    They keep changing terms. They keep saying the same thing.

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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    14 days ago

    Don’t use the acronyms when they use it. Ask them why the particular parts bother them so much. Call out the bigotry and make them express it without any safety of inventing a bad word that avoids an argument.

    Hell, I bet have of the people against DEI don’t even know what it stands for.

  • Troy@lemmy.ca
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    14 days ago

    You’re not wrong.

    It’s a vocabulary treadmill. The right vilify a term (turning it into an insult), the left reinvents a term to make it less insulting, the right vilify the new term, repeat.

    It’s actually super annoying if you’re a centrist – the definitions keep changing and you get stuck in this linguistic tug-of-war.