presentist en · ADJ
Etymology
From present + -ist.
Meanings
-
Of or pertaining to presentism; viewing the past with a perspective limited to present-day attitudes and beliefs.
Industrial processes like these ignore the distinctive demands of local culture and practices and rely fundamentally on the elimination of existing farming cultures as the essence of agriculture. While purportedly forward-looking, this approach is profoundly presentist and placeless.
2018, Patrick J. Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed, New Haven: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 70:To read him as defensively fashioning what we now call a "black identity" is presentist.
2009 December 14, John McWhorter, “The Entertainer: Louis Armstrong's Underrated Legacy”, in The New Yorker, page 89:One aspiration is to mark a particularly momentous year in American history. Another is to combat the presentist bias that harms our ability to see clearly today.
2018 January 1, Conor Friedersdorf, “Exploring 1968 and the Making of Modern America”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 01 Jan 2018:Most of the time, no one really seems to notice that presentist legerdemain, perhaps because so few of us actually remember the experience of 2020 all that clearly and are clinging to hastily imposed narratives instead.
2023 March 17, David Wallace-Wells, “America Has Decided It Went Overboard on Covid-19”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 18 Mar 2023:Many people lost their perspective in their euphoria and became parochial and presentist.
2004, Barry Wellman, Bernie Hogan, “The Immanent Internet”, in Johnston McKay, editor, Netting Citizens: Exploring Citizenship in a Digital Age, Edinburgh: St. Andrew Press, pages 54–80:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most presentist | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more presentist | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |