Words do really mean a lot. Think of all the "isms" or "ists" that you

[eccles12]

can. Do you see a kind of a pattern? ( And yes, I include religions also but mainly focused on social-political-economic "isms."

Let's start with our all time favorite: terrorism and terrorist.

Communisim and communist
fascism and fascist
capitalism and capitalist
zionism and zionist
militarism and militarist
racism and racist
socialism and socialist
marxism and marxist
industrialism and industrialist
feudalism and feudalist

Is it just some kind of grammical rule about these words or do they really signify some spookey negativity?

[Blackthorn]

1. What negativity?

Words aren't negative. It's the context in which they are used. And yes, it's a grammatical rule

Nihilism - Nihilist
Anarchism - Anarchist
Fuckheadism - Fuckheadist

[IntravenousDemilo]

2. Jism. Frist.

[Atman]

4. That's redundant.

...according to the latest guidelines from The Department of Redundancy Dept.

[Atman]

3. I'm tired of all you negativists and your negativism.

;)

[intaglio]

5. Not all have a negative context ;D

positivism - positivist http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=positivism
Optimism - optimist

[Solly Mack]

6. schisms and those darn schismists