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benign neglect

noun

Etymology

Reportedly coined in 1969 by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, adviser to US President Richard Nixon, who recommended this policy with respect to the issue of US racial strife.

Definitions

  1. A policy or strategy of deliberately taking no action concerning an issue, challenging…

    A policy or strategy of deliberately taking no action concerning an issue, challenging situation, or other problem in the belief that this course will ultimately result in the best outcome possible.

    • So tranquil, so quiescent seems Black America in the Nixon Era that a presidential partisan could well argue that "benign neglect" has worked.
    • [T]he Japanese have been intervening to hold down the value of the yen, while Washington has been adopting a policy of benign neglect towards the dollar.
    • I deliberately choose houseplants that thrive on benign neglect.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for benign neglect. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA