DEFINING DEVIANCY DOWN

In 1993, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D., N.Y.) coined the phrase  “defining deviancy down.”* Moynihan’s thesis was that, as a society, America has been “re-defining deviancy” so as to exempt conduct previously stigmatized, and quietly raising the “normal” level for behavior that was abnormal by earlier standards.

” When “deviance is defined down,” the standards by which society lives change; that change is never for the better.

George Will: There is no such thing as rock bottom. So, assume that the worst is yet to come.

He was speaking of the current president and the senate repubicans.

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