hard-liners

Those who won't budge

Hard-liners are people who take an uncompromising stance on political or ideological issues, refusing to moderate their positions or negotiate.

The term often appears in contexts of foreign policy, religious doctrine, or party politics: Hard-liners in the government opposed any peace talks.

The word implies inflexibility that others may find obstructive or principled, depending on perspective.

ideology

extremists

Those with radical positions

ideologues · purists · doctrinaires · dogmatists · partisans · militants · hawks · neoconservatives · ultranationalists · reactionaries

inflexibility

uncompromising

Refusing to yield ground

adamant · unbending · immovable · steadfast · resolute · unwavering · implacable · iron-willed · staunch · tenacious

authoritarianism

autocrats

Rulers with unchecked power

  • despotsOppressive absolute rulers
  • tyrantsOppressive absolute rulers
  • strongmenAuthoritarian rulers or muscular performers

dictators · oppressors · totalitarians · enforcers · apparatchiks · commissars · junta · regime · crackdown · purge

intolerance

bigots

Intolerant, prejudiced people

supremacists · segregationists · exclusionists · jingoists · narrow-minded · prejudiced · discriminatory · parochial · insular · closed-minded

Opposites
political/ideological flexibility

hard-linersmoderates

Reduces intensity or extremity

soft-liners · centrists · compromisers · pragmatists · conciliators

intensity of conviction

hard-linersmoderates

Reduces intensity or extremity

gradualists · reformists · pragmatists · realists · liberals

Family

hard, harder, hardest, harden, hardened, hardening, hardens, hardness, hardly

Familiarity
Top 200,000
Profile
Used worldwide · Timeless · Negative · Everyday, not technical · Rated PG