Todays Thought

Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together. 

-Eugene Ionesco, playwright (26 Nov 1909-1994)

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Todays Thought

To learn who rules over you, simply find out whom you are not allowed to criticize. 

-Voltaire, philosopher (21 Nov 1694-1778)

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Todays Thought

If you want a symbolic gesture, don't burn the flag, wash it. 

-Norman Thomas, minister and social reformer (20 Nov 1884-1968)

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Todays Word

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

chauvinist

PRONUNCIATION:

(SHO-vuh-nist) 

MEANING:

noun: One who believes in the superiority of one’s country, group, gender, etc.
adjective: Believing in or relating to such beliefs.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Nicolas Chauvin, a legendary French soldier in Napoleon’s army, noted for his fanatical patriotism. The figure of Nicolas Chauvin was popularized in the play La Cocarde Tricolore by the Cogniard brothers. Earliest documented use: 1877. The concept is known as chauvinism.

NOTES:

Nicolas Chauvin supposedly loved Napoleon so much he made modern fanboys look like stoics. He was wounded 17 times, yet couldn’t stop singing La Marseillaise. Whether he actually existed is debated, but his overzealous devotion gave us chauvinism.
Originally, a chauvinist was an ultra-patriot, but over time the term broadened to include sexism, partisanship, and group smugness of every stripe. From “My country, right or wrong” it became “My anything, right or wrong.” Wrong, who said wrong, mine’s always right. Actually, mine’s better.

USAGE:

“Now Ms Silva is under attack in Brazil. Having returned to the helm of the environment ministry in 2023, on July 2nd she was summoned before a committee in the lower house of Congress to testify about deforestation. Lawmakers hurled insults at her for almost seven hours. They called her ‘inelegant’ and ‘a disgrace’, compared her to terrorists and told her to resign. In a previous exchange, senators had told her she ‘should know her place’ and that she did not deserve respect. Such chauvinist language is nasty, and reflects the state of environmental discourse in Brazil today.”
A Losing Battle; The Economist (London, UK); Jul 12, 2025.

See more usage examples of chauvinist in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

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Todays Thought

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips. 

-Oliver Goldsmith, writer and physician (10 Nov 1730-1774)

Todays Thought

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. 

-Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (9 Nov 1934-1996)

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His mother had often said, When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it. 

-Lois McMaster Bujold, writer (b. 2 Nov 1949)

Todays Thought

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. 

-Ella Wheeler Wilcox, poet (5 Nov 1850-1919)

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