wrong side of history
5
8.3
- idiom
- Literature
:
lado equivocado de la historia
- So I am not at all concerned that we are on the wrong side of history.
But the truth is they're on the wrong side of history, right?
- But the truth is they're on the wrong side of history, right?
- And he puts you on the wrong side of history that that's the problem.
Examples
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To be against the expression of the will of the people is to be on the wrong side of history.
Blog text (8) -
The Catholic Church once again found itself on the wrong side of history.
Blog text (7) -
Never set foot on the wrong side of history.
-
What does it mean to be on the wrong side of history?
Blog text (21) -
Once again, America is on the wrong side of history.
Blog text (27) -
David, you are on the wrong side of history.
Blog text (23) -
Are you guys on the wrong side of history?
Blog text (34) -
Who is on the wrong side of history now?
Blog text (21) -
You are on the wrong side of history.
Blog text (25) -
If you keep fighting progress, you are going to find yourself on the wrong side of history.
Synonyms
6
8.0
Stubborn in keeping ideas that are wrong
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'wrong' + 'side' + 'history' do give a clear clue that someone is positioned incorrectly relative to historical judgment, so learners can partly infer a negative stance. However, the phrase encodes a cultural/political metaphor about future moral evaluation that is not fully predictable from the literal words and requires pragmatic or background knowledge, so it is only partly transparent.
Etymology
The expression wrong side of history comes from the image of history as a long story or book, where people choose a side, the wrong or the right one, and later readers judge those choices. So, being on the wrong side of history means holding views that later people will say were 'wrong'.