How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government

[DonViejo]

Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. Here's how it works

BY MICHAEL LIND

“Semantic infiltration” is a term coined by the foreign policy expert Fred Ikle and popularized by the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Ikle defined it thus:

Semantic infiltration means one undermines one’s own position in negotiations by adopting unknowingly the terms which the adversary “infiltrates.”

As a conservative, Ikle drew most of his examples of semantic infiltration from liberal usages that became mainstream, like “affirmative action” for race- or gender-based preference policies. But in recent years, it is arguably the center-left that has suffered the most from the successful semantic infiltration of public discourse by loaded conservative terminology.

Witness the two terms “the welfare state” and “entitlements.” The right has managed to turn “welfare state,” once a neutral description for a modern system of economic security for individuals, into a pejorative phrase.

An even greater triumph of semantic infiltration by the right has been the universal use of the term “entitlements.” As used by conservatives and liberals alike, “entitlements” usually refers to three social insurance programs — two of them universal (Social Security and Medicare) and one means-tested (Medicaid).

full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/18/how_right_wingers_use_semantic_tricks_to_kill_government/

[Eddie Haskell]

1. Another language trick is the misnomer

Misnomer: a word or term that suggests a meaning that is incorrect or known to be wrong.

Misnomers can be a word or term used incorrectly; but when used repeatedly the intent of the user is obviously to deceive, to mislead ... To fool. For years now, Republican members of Congress have been deliberately misnaming legislation with the intent of hoodwinking working class constituents into supporting bills that are contrary to their own best interests. The pattern is unmistakable.

Take, for example, the Working Families Flexibility Act – an act (not yet law) that gives employers an option not to pay overtime. While it pretends to give employees the flexibility, in fact, it's the employers that get to decide when (or if) an employee can use their saved time. There's no guarantee that the saved time can ever be used and if not used, the employee goes unpaid. This act has nothing whatsoever to do with family flexibility, in fact, it's a step back to the days when workers were required to work whenever and however long their employers demanded.

Democrats need to point out the lies and the liars behind them.

[kairos12]

2. Bush's Clear Skies Law