whateverisms

Noun

whateverism (countable and uncountable, plural whateverisms)

1. An adherence to the Two Whatevers: We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave.
   • The critique of “whateverism” picked up added momentum in late June, when People's Daily published an article by a “special correspondent” who argued that it was not necessarily a revisionist sin to update the Thought of Mao Zedong periodically in accordance with the requirements of a changing...1994, Richard Baum, Burying Mao: Chinese Politics in the Age of Deng Xiaoping, updated edition, Princeton University Press, published 2018, →ISBN, page 59
2. (rare) A belief in whatever; apathy, nothingarianism.
   • Most religious communities' central problem is not teen rebellion but teenagers' benign “whateverism.”2005, Christian Smith, Melinda Lundquist Denton, Soul searching: the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers, →DOI, →ISBN
3. (countable) Synonym of ism (an ideology, system of thought, or practice that can be described by a word ending in -ism)
   • [Terrence] Malick’s ponderously poetic whateverism informs the pacing here, although writer-director David Lowery’s 90-minute mood piece is certainly a bit tighter.2017 July 19, Ken Eisner, “A Ghost Story scares up a poetic mood”, in The Georgia Straight, retrieved 11 Mar 2021

   Synonyms:

   ism