[WikiEN-l] The Word Cabal

[Geoff Burling]

Maybe I'm just more cynical & sardonic than I am can truly discern,
but having been recently involved in a dispute where the word "cabal"
was thrown around rather freely, I feel the need to ask: is there
really any difference between "cabal" & "a group of people who all
concur in a consensus"?

Or is this one of those cases similar to the POV pair terrorist/freedom
fighter? By which, I mean something like the following: if I hold the
same opinion as a number of other people, then it is a consensus; if I
disagree with the shared opinion of a group of people, then they are a cabal.

Or is this use of "cabal" another example of certain words being misused
to enflame emotions until they have lost their precise meanings, much as
I've seen the words "war criminal" & "genocide" misused.

Geoff