Republicans ruining the definitions of words

[TheFarseer]

For example: Savage was just talking on his show about John Kerry's plan to give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. I'm not clear on what the plan is, but he said it was "Orwellian" OK, now I'm not for coddling illegal immigrants, but HOW is that Orwellian? Does he have any idea what that means? It's kind of the same way repukes say anything vaguely left of center is communist. For the love of God, there is some middle ground between the insane RW things they want and communism! The point is, everything you don't like is not communist, or Orwellian. Patriot act = Orwellian, constantly rewriting what you said about war with Iraq = Orwellian, plan to give illegals citizenship is not Orwellian.

[DenverDem]

1. little mikey weiner's followers don't need things to make sense

In fact, the less sense things make, the easier it is for them to blindly and self destructively buy into the bullshit.

[gold_bug]

2. manipulation of language is a big part of

why they're powerful. It's a very calculated thing that they've worked out over the last decade. And they'll keep doing it until people catch on, not that I expect that most people will ever catch on to the rightwing tricks.

"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."
--Philip K. Dick,
"How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" (1986)

[amber dog democrat]

3. Its all about the use of symbols and myths

that are used to distort reality. If GWB is good at playing on the cultural obsessions of his base, he's got lots of help.

I hate to think how much I may be affected in the same way. The more I learn, the less I know.

[hlchilders]

4. Ruining words, or just mis-using words?

Although I agree with most of what you say here, I won't credit Savage with ruining words. The lunatic ravings of Savage are just offensive. Even on the rare occasion that I agree with something he says, I am offended by the way he says it. I agree that the Patriot act is Orwellian, but constantly rewriting what you say about war with Iraq is just politics as usual. Unfortunately, Republicans don't have a monopoly on that practice. I think that any plan to eliminate the word "alien" from our vocabulary when referring to neighbors is a good thing. Savage's opposition to anything nice could be considered Orwellian.

I am an armature writer, and as such I was drawn to your subject heading above. I hate it when society changes the meaning of a word. It limits the use of that word and gives me one less word to express my thoughts. The word Orwellian means what it means, no matter how Savage misuses it. In this case the Savage did not change the meaning of the word, that takes a lot more time and a much larger following than Savage will ever have. A word must be used in common practice with its new meaning before its real meaning is forgotten or disregarded.

There are a few words that this has happened to in my lifetime. Two in particular that come to mind are "queer" and "gay". Both are used to refer to a segment of the population that, while it certainly deserves its own words to describe it, certainly could have come up with words that would not be ruined for other uses in the process. To be fair, I think the word "queer" changed its meaning as a result of those who were looking for a derogatory term to refer to homosexuals. So I don't blame homosexuals for ruining that word. I guess I need to blame homophobes for that one. That just adds one more thing, among many, for which I blame homophobes. But the word is ruined none-the-less. Responsibility for ruining the word "gay" falls squarely on the shoulders of the homosexual community. And to be honest, I think it is not a good description of the people it is meant to describe. I happen to be acquainted with people from that segment of the population and I would say the word "gay" does not describe all or even a majority of them. Furthermore, I know straight people that I could describe with that word. I would also say that, as a general rule, homosexuals are intelligent, educated people. So why can't they refer to themselves by coining a new word.

[Brian Morans]

5. What about

the word "liberal". And the christian right is making the word "tolerance" into something evil. To change the meaning of a word in the way the right-wing does is not too hard. They just utter it with spitting contempt repeatedly. Eventually enough people start to believe it must be bad.

[hlchilders]

6. Good Point

Those are two very good examples. When you use a word like "liberal" in the presence of some of my friends you conjure up an image in their minds that you may not want there. For example; liberal = pro-choice. I suppose if you are pro-choice that's okay, but all liberals are not pro-choice. I am very liberal on most issues, moderate on others, but I am definitely not pro-choice. On the other side of this, if I begin to argue against abortion with my liberal friends they want to label me right wing conservative, which is also very far from the truth.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

11. At last! Another liberal pro-lifer!

It seems I'm not alone after all.

[LiberalPersona]

12. No, you're not alone

There are a few liberals that are pro-life like myself.

[Robert Murphy]

13. If one was allowed a 'moderate' position on abortion...

Er, I sure as h*ll find abortion distasteful (to put it mildly) but I support abortion rights--I don't want a return to the 'coathanger days.' But I bloody well would have voted for the ban on "partial birth" abortion if (by some cosmic accident) I was in congress.

Robert

P.S. Pro-life liberals are welcome in the Democratic party. (Or damn well should be.) Are we the "party of inclusion" or a bunch of one-issue-you're-out idealogues? (Like a certain other party is increasingly becoming...)

[Robert Murphy]

7. Even Ideology Aside...

Republicans butcher the Queen's English even when they're not using loaded words in order to mislead. (Well some--the likes of John McCain or Chuck Hagel e.g. speak proper English, and neither man ever resorts to demagoguery.)

Just a few examples:

Rush Limbaugh says this of a 9/11 certain widow's org. (one demanding accountability from the Bush Admin,): "These people have been literally poisoned by their hate."

Gee Rush, literally? Did these women 'hate' so much, they suffered a rare sort of psychosomatic illness where their liver function ceased, or something?

or,

Rumsfeld: "incentivate" is not a word.

And,

Trent Lott: 'dialogue' is not a f*cking verb. (People talk, they don't 'dialogue.' Shall we conversation about this?)

Or, go to any web forums where people of across the political spectrum post. Do a study--take a random sampling of posts and cut-and-paste them into Word. Run Spellcheck on each. I would bet money that 90% of those riddled with errors are written by far-right-wingers.

Oh well, I guess I'm just another 'librul elleetest.'

Robert

[Nicholas_J]

8. Yup that was in Newt Gingrichs manual for Republicans runnning

For office back in the 90's when they were trying to take over the Congress.

Right in black and white he states "Control the langusge and you control the debate"

At this time they changed anti-abortion into "right to life" among other things. Liberalism became closely linked to the word "socialistic" They kept hammering and hammering at this until the words and opinions became part of the national language.

[Soth]

9. Control the language is right...

As you've mentioned, not just changing the meaning of words, but also word associations is a HUGE part of the Republican propaganda.

Repubs love supercharged words. They take words that have extreme connotations and apply them to themselves or their enemies, depending on the image they wish to create.

Examples:

Ann "The Man" Coulter's works, such as Slander and Treason. Words with extreme connotations applied to Democrats. And if you keep announcing words like that and associating hem with a group, then the words and the group will eventually come to be closely associated in some people's minds.

Sean "Vanity" Hannity also uses words and phrases from patriotic works to title his books, such as "Let Freedom Ring." This means that people will start to associate the Repubs with those good, old-fashioned patriotic songs and the patriotic virtues that came with them.

Of course, liberals do this, too, but in a far more humorous, mocking-of-Repubs fashion. (See Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.)

[Brian Morans]

10. Pugs have understood for years

that if you control the language, you control the discourse. I'm sure the dems have been aware of this, but we have not responded in kind. We need to call them on it EVERY SINGLE TIME. We also need to find our own drumbeat - "cheap-labor conservatives" is a good one.

[gtar100]

14. All these reasons we must not be silent

I think they got away with controlling the language because many of "us liberals" thought their own stupidity would bury itself. I underestimated the determination of their bigotry back in the 80's and my alarm only grew to a head with Bush 's actions since 9/11. Thank God the climate is changing and rw lies are being challenged. The truth will crush a lie anytime.

[keyzersoze13]

15. They may be right about this one

After all, the Repukes are experts when it comes to Orwellian language.