Channeling my inner Safire
When looking at Matt's recent thesis/antithesis post, it dawned on me that the somewhat derisive term to describe one half of the debate (or could be construed that way) isn't limited to the thesis or antithesis.

In the baseball debate, scouts are just that -- scouts. But for the number crunchers, "statheads" is a common term, and that can be looked at in a couple of ways.

In the media debate, bloggers are that -- bloggers. But today "mainstream" is now often construed as a bad thing, especially when it comes to media. Mainstream music, movies and news all mean it's for geared for a large audience, and therefore it must suck. If it's not serving a niche, it must be bad. (But I guess it plays to the general feeling on both sides of the debate that "people are stupid.")

And in another language bit, I always wondered when tolerance was considered such a bad word that people would rather have zero of it, especially in schools. According to this piece, it's always been a less than positive word that can be spun in a brighter light if done correctly.