“commie”
political contempt · reclamation: low
A cold-war-era epithet (communist) revived as a catch-all for the left.
◆ Real Reddit sample · classifier not yet validated — suggestive, not findings
Based on 408 real Reddit comments sampled via Arctic Shift.
How the word is actually used
n = 342 aimed/attributed/claimed · plus 56 neutral mentions, 10 meta · 95% CI on direct: [55–65%]
Most of what looks like contempt is people attributing the put-down to others or claiming it themselves — not aiming it. That gap is the whole point.
Where it's aimed
- Liberals & progressives90%
- Conservatives10%
Inferred per-comment target group, n = 304.
Where it's used — and how
- r/politicsn43
- r/PoliticalDiscussionn42
- r/AskRedditn42
- r/askaconservativen42
- r/Conservativen41
- r/unpopularopinionn41
Same word, different room: the bars (aimed · attributed · claimed) show how each community uses it. Sampled across political, regional, and identity subreddits.
Etymology
First attested 1940s · Red Scare era
clipping of 'communist', revived in modern political snark.
- 1940s — earliest noted use
- 2010s — circulated as online political/lifestyle contempt
In context (short, fair-use)
- DIRECT“The party that is all into Freedom apparently. More like a bunch of commies imho.” reddit r/politics ↗
- ATTRIB“So funny after years of every maga asshole calling people commies” reddit r/politics ↗
- CLAIM“Pinko commie Alberta NDP voter here. I'm tired, boss.” reddit r/politics ↗
- MENTION“["Have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water?"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttlIuyMFwRw) Thanks, Kubrick!” reddit r/politics ↗