Word: bogeyman
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...framing that led the American fiasco in Vietnam to occur. The hardliners in the foreign policy apparatus in the late years of the 50s refused to see the fight in Vietnam as one of local politics, denied the overriding issues of nationalism and dressed it up as a Communist bogeyman for the American public and the world. Communism turned out not to be a monolith, just as Islam isn’t, but a force shaped by local history and regional circumstances. The results of this were disastrous. This sort of logic, that simplifies, reduces, and decontextualizes, is intellectually irresponsible...
...loan from another country accustomed to being regarded as the bad guy by Britons: Russia. With relations between Moscow and London in a deep freeze since the 2006 murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, the display of Russian-Icelandic amity helps confirm Reykjavik's status as a British bogeyman. That won't worry the British government at all. In times of crisis, it's good to have friends, but it's even more useful to have enemies...
...resolute stance on Tibet won much support from people here who increasingly see their fate tied to the booming mainland. For many, China is no longer the communist bogeyman that it once was for those living in the former British colony. "Hong Kongers are caught in the fervor of the Olympics," says Ma Ngok, a political analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "Even if they're not nationalist, they won't be inclined to be sympathetic toward Tibetans." Even Chan herself thinks self-determination for Tibetans is a "lost cause," but she intends to soldier on regardless...
...same 15 million stoners. Many users tend to pick it up in their teens, then drop it in their 20s. And 50% of them don't use any other drugs. Selling it is still illegal, but the pot dealer is no longer the panic-inducing bogeyman he used to be. In movieland, he's become a stock character, about as threatening as the hot woman's quirky roommate...
...This language, combined with the Obama campaign's aggressive efforts to reach out to religious voters, has made it hard for the Christian Right to paint Obama as a secular bogeyman. His opponents have numerous lines of attack - is he a secret Muslim? A black nationalist Christian? A wishy-washy liberal Protestant? - but all seem to accept the basic premise that Obama is religious, which is key in a country where 70% of voters say they want their President to be a person of faith, according to Pew Research polls...