I hate the word ‘Consumer’ or I mockingly call it ‘CONSOOMER’. Because that’s to imply everyone in the world is just cattle, but with wallets. We’re no longer customers. We’re consumers now. And a consumer’s purpose is to consume shit, whatever is put out there. Got money? Shut up and consume, it’s what corporate interests and capitalism itself thrive on. Consume and consume.
I hate the word “taxpayer” to disparage anything government funded or that implies the government is cheating the average person. For example, I found this headline after 2 seconds of searching:
“The Taxpayer-Funded Electric Bus Company Pump and Dump Scheme that Benefitted Biden Donors”
They use “taxpayer” to make it sound like instead of citizens, we are customers who buy into government services, and should feel personally victimized by people who use government services as they are taking money from our pockets. And don’t even get me started on the “small business owner”…
EDIT: wow, unsurprisingly the word has always been used for political oppression (from ITPI):
“As the Brookings Institution’s Vanessa Williamson has documented, wealthy southern whites “focused their critique of Reconstruction on rising government debt and excessive spending, painting government by Black people and poor whites as intrinsically corrupt.” They called themselves “taxpayers,” allowing them to convince small white farmers to join their side while avoiding explicit opposition to Black male suffrage. Ultimately, they were successful.”
Ugh. Farmers are not stupid people in the least but I’ll be damned if even up to less than a century ago they are not always the ones thru history to be hoodwinked by the wealthy into some sort of rich man’s scheme.