What's the origin of the phrase "commie pinko"?

[tridim]

Just a random question that popped into my head. Was it from All In The Family? What does the word "pinko" mean?

[flamingyouth]

1. I know it was used in the late '40s

I think it's a reference to someone who's not quite a full "red," but I could be wrong.

[tridim]

7. That makes sense.

Thanks.

Maybe Archie Bunker added the "commie" part.

[Bossy Monkey]

9. That's what it looks like here

American Heritage leans that way, as do these guys:
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=p&p=17

As to "commie pinko," I think that's just the kind of thing real right-wing nutballs were calling people like us in the 60s (and probably before that), so the writers put it in Archie Bunker's mouth.

[Gloria]

2. It must have come into use during the McCarthy era...I don't know for

sure, but when I was a young kid, I remember my father saying "Pinko did it" whenever I did something wrong and was trying to get away with it.

This was during the 50's. "Pinko did it." At the time I had no idea of who Pinko was...years later, I concluded it had to do with being a "commie."

[bobthedrummer]

3. Homosexual inference, I think.

Instead of "commie" followed by any gay reference which wouldn't be printed in "respectable" media during the McCarthy era.

[kixot]

4. Not red, just barely pink.

Pinko was reserved for "red-leaning" Americans. The idea was that they may not be a full blown Red Soviet Commie Bastard, but they're at least a little pink. Hence, "pinko".

[SemiCharmedQuark]

5. They used "red" to mean communists from the Soviet Union

The Red Menace, etc. So pinkos were those that had communist leanings but weren't fully red...pink.

[JimmyJazz]

6. Here ya go:

A person sympathetic to the Communist Party and Russia during the Cold War but not an outright Communist. Often used by people on the extreme right to describe anyone who doesn't share their views. Probably very similar in meaning but more insulting than "Fellow Traveller". Widely used in the USA and other countries. Used most famously in 1950 by Richard Nixon against Helen Gahagan Douglas: "She's pink down to her underwear". (At the time, women's undergarments, if colored, were usually pink.)

The identification of Communism with "Socialist" red (and with red being the primary color of the flag of the Soviet Union) led to such Cold War phrases as "the Red Menace" and "Red China".

Hence "Pinko," pink being a light red.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamofascism#Pinko

[Me.]

8. I think the term came from

communist sympathizers, not quite red, then came to be used to describe anyone who was liberal, left leaning or anti-establishment.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. Now now.... All you have to do is Ask Auntie Pinko right here

on DU!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/auntie/01/2001_auntie_02.html

It's use goes back to pre-1920.

You have to remember there were pinkos, Commie-pinkos and Socialist-pinkos then. And the differences were large.

When socialism died out during the Depression, all that was left (har har) was commie-pinkos.