I want a forum on Altering Language.

[PurgedVoter]

I would love to see a forum focusing on the word and language games that are being used by Republicans. This would concentrate thought on an area where Republicans are abusing the tools people use to think.

I think that the current strength the Republicans have shown is also their weakness. As they buy into the verbiage first, they limit their own perception. Eventually those who are trying to lead us to see an extreme view as reasonable, themselves stop seeing how unreasonable their view is.

If one looks at the pattern of the shifts in language, one can begin to see where they are headed. This gives us the ability to see where they are heading clearly. This allows more compassionate thinkers to head them off at the pass. Their inflexibility and unity is not I hope in the long term their strength. I suspect it is their Achilles Heel.

By tainting the words activist, protester, special interest group, and the like, you strengthen the only remaining influence on government, big money.

By labeling personal law suits as frivolous, and using terms like personal responsibility, you distract from the excesses, robberies and violence of big business.

By using the Flip Flop term the inflexibility and lack of reasoning demonstrated by Bush becomes a strength instead of being the weakness it really is. By defending Kerry, the insane argument was reinforced. The insane argument is that one should not alter ones view based on evidence.

It becomes clear what the Republicans are really for if you look at the direction their linguistic maneuvers are pointing.

They are against depth in education.
They are against science based decisions.
They are against ethically based decisions.
They are against majority rule.
They are against a world consensus for peace.
They are for the rights that big money grants.

The Current Rules of Debate:
1. Anything said by a Republican has equal weight with the truth.
2. If anyone opposing a Republican has ever been wrong, then that conservative is right.
3. If a Republican says an opponent is wrong then the opponent is wrong.
4. If by some chance a Republican loses a debate, he will still be declared a winner.
5. A Republican, who has divorced three times and evaded child support, can attack an opponent who has been happily married for 40 years and put two children through college, by saying his opponent has weak family values.

I am not using the term conservative here, because I think that true conservatives have been marginalized entirely. The American Conservative has been attacked and subverted entirely by the current Republican elite. The self interest is still there, but nothing else remains.

[CrispyQ]

1. Have you checked the

Frame the Debate group?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=252

[PurgedVoter]

3. Thank you CrispyQGirl

That is close enough for me, I'll be there.

[joneschick]

2. wow! and welcome to DU

your love for language and understanding it's use and abuse and it's malleability are wonderfully evident in your post. I look forward to seeing more from you. Again, on the wow.

[PurgedVoter]

4. Thank you!

You are too kind, joneschick!

[seaj11]

5. great post

I myself have a particular interest in language. You seem to have a pretty good grasp on the use of rhetoric.

Elle

[JohnWxy]

6. QUICK TRIP TO AN ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE

I arose yesterday morning and while rubbing the cobwebs from my eyes turned on the morning news to see what had transpired while I slept. Then I heard it. Tom Delay was being indicted for conspiracy to launder corporate contributions used for Texas Republican campaigns. I couldn’t believe it, Tom Delay indicted! I must confess, I never thought it would happen. But I was in for more revelations.

I watched as the Tom spoke to newsmen. He stated that the Texas District Attorney who filed the indictment was a “fanatic”, that this indictment was nothing more than a partisan campaign to get him and without legal merit. I watched the man as he flashed a cold smile and looked out with dead eyes.

Yes, I had heard it. Or at least I thought I heard it. The man who came to the halls of Congress inspired by his former calling as a exterminator establishing new levels of callousness and distinguishing himself as the master of the politics of coercion and intimidation had just called a Texas District Attorney a “fanatic” and his indictment nothing but a “partisan action”. The deliberative body where the techniques of debate, negotiation and compromise were the standard of a practice had a Majority Leader whose approach to politics is that it is war; that your opponents are the enemy and that taking no prisoners is the rule of this war. Tyrannosaurus Tom had brought madness to his methods and was respected as one would respect a Rothweiler on amphetamines. This was the man describing a Texas District Attorney as a fanatic. Did he also include all the members of the Grand Jury who voted for the indictment in this surreal remark?

I began to think perhaps I was dreaming. Or maybe, last night as I slept I had somehow been swept off to an alternative universe, an inverse world where “UP” was “DOWN”, “Right“ was “Left” and Evil had transformed itself into Saintliness. I checked the television again to watch The Tom, half suspecting words to flow forth in backwards order from his mouth. Perhaps he would begin speaking in a new language he invented on the spot following his own rules of grammar, logic and meaning. I fully expected he would put the newsmen into a trance-like state in thrall to his Magical Malignity as the Neo-cons had so successfully done with the media in general.

I anxiously checked my watch to see if the second hand was sweeping backwards around the watch dial. It was not! I looked outside to see if cars on the street were rocketing into the air in repeal of the law of gravity. They were not! Relieved, I was convinced I was still in my old familiar world where Right remained right and Wrong was still unconscionable.

So what was going on? How could Tom Terrific be saying with such smooth equanimity that “he had done nothing wrong.”? Then I thought, was it possible the Mr. Delay really did NOT realize that what he had done was wrong. Was it possible he truly did not believe he had done anything wrong? It became clear to me then that what we have in Mr. Delay is the classic sociopath. The Sociopath does not regard anything he does as wrong. He is incapable of recognizing Wrong. Wrong just does not exist in the mind if a sociopath.

If this is indeed the case, and I suspect it is, we have a real problem in The Tom. Because a sociopath is capable of doing anything without any sense of guilt. Guilt is an unknown sentiment to the sociopath. “Wrong” as a concept does not exist to the sociopath. This is not a good thing. Tyrranosaurus Tom is one of the most powerful people in the U.S., after Dick Cheney (but before Ken Ley).

Then I laughed at myself. I had to be dreaming. I mean, Tom Delay, the Master of Menace, would make sure he was never even indicted. He wouldn’t let himself be indicted any more than Jeff Bush would let his state go to Al Gore (no matter what the vote was!). No more than Katherine Harris would let a real vote count be taken. HE-he-he. Silly me. I was still asleep, still dreaming. So I shut off my dream tv and just went back to sleep. I know I’ll wake up in Bushland tomorrow. Where all is well with the rich and powerful and control remains with THE PARTY.