So, I've heard the term x-adjacent to basically mean "this person disagrees with my views even though he's not y thing I hate". The problem is, where was this first used after 2014 GG?
I've never, EVER heard this term used unironically until around 2016-ish, and it's ONLY ever fucking used by leftists to shove people who are moderates into imaginary groups. A kind of scarlet letter to brand you as a bad person without directly saying it.
Like I legit want to know when it started being used - it's now part of the left wing newspeak to attack others for wrongthink, so I'm wondering was this used in an academic paper somewhere, or was it popularized on degenerate sites like Tumblr or Twitter or what. I am legitimately curious because it drives me absolutely nuts because the only fucking time I used this term before was to talk about things PHYSICALLY being next to each other, never as an ad hominem attack for an ideology.
Agreed - I'm 99% sure you'll find the term in some race/feminist studies textbook in the last 30 years.
Same with "Critical Race Theory" which has actually been written on in radical communist think tanks for decades.
But the "*-adjacent" verbage isn't rational or logical - it's purely political/debate speak as a means of deflection or binding in a debate. EG "You're evil because you're white-adjacent" "My characters are good because they're hobbit-adjacent" You find the same techniques discussed in Scientology and EST schools in the 70s. They're OLD techniques used specifically for subterfuge and mind control.
You don't think Lucas created the concept when he had obi-wan say "You don't need to see his identification" - mind trickery is one of the oldest known political sciences.
Well, obviously they had their origin elsewhere. Struggle sessions had their origins in prior decades or centuries, etc. Nothing is new under the sun when it comes to propaganda and fuckery.
I was strictly speaking about the term itself.
I agree the VERBAGE is recent - but this is just a repackaged concept for fast food style consumption or our twitter age.
It's just word association. "My stuff doesn't suck"