📉 Believing in decline 📉 A decline believer

degenerationist

9.6

Supporting the idea that a society or group is getting worse over time

adjective
/ˌdɛdʒəˈnɛrɪəˌnɪst/

Archaic

: degeneracionista

Many scholars criticize the degenerationist view that modern society is steadily declining in moral values.

Examples

The degenerationist perspective suggests that environmental factors significantly contribute to the decline of species.
Of course, Lafitau's degenerationist theory, which argued that our first parents lost the gift of an ideal religion, relied not so much on biblical fundamentalism as on a Catholic dogmatic tradition that called for literal exegesis.

Academic text (2007)
As a degenerationist, he argued that the rapid changes in technology were leading society towards decline.

Antonyms

progressive

278 4.8

Supporting new social changes in politics to make society fairer

reformist

7 6.1

A person who wants to change political or social systems

Surface Forms

degenerationist positive

Morphology

degenerationist = degeneration (semi-transparent) = degenerat + ion + ist

The suffix '-ist' clearly signals adherence or relation, but the adjective's specific sense of supporting a degeneration theory is somewhat specialized.

Etymology

Degenerationist comes from de- ('down') and generate ('to make'), the same root you see in the common word generate. A helpful way to remember it is that it points to 'making down' or things 'getting worse', so a degenerationist view is one that says a society or group is in decline.