Word: claptraps
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...political leadership. Now, in the autumn of 1942, he reappears, happily leading a jumble of discontented people who find the existing administration of British affairs unendurable. The jumble is called 'Common Wealth.' . . . His intelligence is very limited and unstable. He is as imitative as a monkey, any claptrap that seems to be popular goes into his bag and any 'religious' cant, and his ambition for 'leadership' is uncontrollable...
Alarms in the Aleutians. A few U.S. newspapers and politicians fell for this claptrap, contributing to the pressure turned upon the Washington high command (see p. 25). So, perhaps unwittingly, did reports passed by local commanders and censors in the Aleutians and Alaska...
...Alas, alas, that knowledge, in itself so hateful and mawkish a thing, should yet be necessary for Power! Sometimes I am almost in despair. All that sustains me is the conviction that our Realism, our rejection (in the face of all temptations) of all silly nonsense and claptrap, must win in the end. Meanwhile, I have you to settle with. Most truly do I sign myself...
...Washington priest pondered the shape of the world to come. On one matter he was convinced. "The millions of returning soldiers and sailors will not be satisfied or fooled by the old claptrap concerning 'rugged individualism,' 'American opportunity' or 'American equality.' . . . They will not be lulled to sleep by commonplaces about the limitations and difficulties of distribution, nor by promises of 'prosperity just around the corner.' They will demand jobs here and now. I do not believe that an economy dominated by the philosophy of 'free enterprise' will be able...
While gullibles rolled their eyes, responsible Negroes hoped such claptrap would not find fertile soil. Said Mr. U. S. Falls, vice president of the National Negro Business League: "America need have no fear of the Negro turning traitor if the true principles of democracy are applied to us as to every other minority group...