20 points
Similarly to how ‘reactionary’ just means ‘bad’ to these people. For the record a ‘reactionary’ is somebody who wants to restore a previous status quo. It’s not inherently good or bad.
-3 points
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Reactionary, in political science terms, is the opposite of radicals. Radicals are to the left and reactionaries are to the right. In practice, people on the internet tend to use radical for both, but I wish the distinction was made more clear.
2 points
You are correct. Radicals want things to change in an extreme way, and reactionaries are just that, reactionary to change. Not sure why you got downvoted for knowing what you are talking about.
Language does change, though, and often laymen use words differently than subject matter experts.
2 points
1 point