Now I know I have already spoken about Andrew Schlafly's "Best New Conservative Words" nonsense. Still, Andy keeps on coming back to it, in much the same way you can't help playing with a rotten tooth. As you may, or may not, know Andy has surmised that ever since the 17th century, more and more conservative words have been created, essentially doubling in number every century.
There are, of course, two problems with this:
- The so-called "conservative words" appear to be a random collection of terms pulled out of Andy's ass, and augmented by several parodists. Thus we get such entries as "Radar" and "transistor" being conservative terms.
- Andy applies his own selection bias to the project. Thus if the 1700s had 5 new "conservative" words, the 1800s must have 10. So, Andy stops counting when the words he has decided on match his criteria. He hardly ever goes further back, because finding a new word in 1600 would mean 2 new 1700s words, 4 new 1800s words, 8 new 1900s words and 16 new 2000s words. And even Andy could have trouble coming up with so many words.
Still, despite the unscientific nature of the whole thing (but then we all know science is the Devil's work!) Andy has issued a challenge on Conservapedia's font page, which reads:
"Liberals doubt our observed doubling per century for these words, yet every layer reproves the remarkable growth pattern. Still looking for 6 more. Can any liberals disprove the pattern?"
