Word-games à la wingnut

If you are in confrontation with a right-winger on the internet and the subject of racism or homophobia comes up, your interlocutor may cite a "definition" of the word "bigot" attributed to Google, which reads as follows: "a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions".

This odd definition has been a wingnut talking point for some time, because it conveniently excludes most forms of real bigotry. The KKK's hatred of blacks has nothing to do with what opinions blacks hold, any more than the fundie hatred of gays does. So if bigotry is re-defined as intolerance toward opinions, the KKK and the homophobes are not bigots, but people who object to the hateful views (opinions) of those groups are bigots. Very convenient.

I don't know where that "definition" originates. Yes, it does come up in Google when you search on the word "bigot", but real dictionaries, including online ones, show definitions which fit the word's actual meaning.  My trusty Webster's, for example, defines it as "1. a person who holds blindly and intolerantly to a particular creed, opinion, etc." and "2. a narrow-minded, intolerant person".

This isn't the only case where ideology has given a common word some Orwellian re-definition.  We all know how "freedom" has been twisted by the enemy to mean low taxes and the "freedom" of the wealthy to use their property rights to run roughshod over everyone else (and, in the case of some libertarian types, the freedom to use drugs), but almost never sexual or reproductive freedom or any other kind of core personal freedom.  In fact, the central error of libertarian ideology is that it can only conceive of freedom being infringed by government -- use of economic power by, say, landlords or employers to restrict the freedom of non-wealthy individuals, no matter how egregious, does not count.  Similarly, whenever a prude or censorious type says "it's not a matter of freedom of expression", you can be pretty certain that whatever they're talking about is a matter of freedom of expression.  The word "freedom" has been twisted in so many ways by various people with agendas that I tend to use a more explicit phrase, such as "individual self-determination", in its place when I feel it's necessary for clarity.

But we shouldn't have to surrender the word "freedom", and I'm not going to surrender "bigot" either.  If someone hates black people or thinks homosexuality is immoral, that person is a bigot.  And I am not a bigot for denouncing his views.