Thursday, May 27, 2004

Listen to This!

A must listen. Dr. George Lakoff, professor of linguistics at U.C. Berkeley discusses the Right's use of doublespeak and framing to get people to think the way that the Right wishes. Due to 30 years of indoctrination and framing of the issues, the Right has turned language on its head, to a point where the destruction of forests has become The Healthy Forests Initiative, and rollback of air quality standards has become The Clear Skies Initiative.

This is not coincidental.

Listen here.

Audio link is down as of posting time. Most of what Lakoff says can be read here. I'll look for other Lakoff stuff. Sorry about the RM link being down.

The Rock Ridge Institute to "reframe and rethink public policy" is a good place to learn how to start to reframe vexing issues back toward objective realities, rather than the Right's twisting of reality to suit their agenda. It's not difficult, but in order to undo 30 years of indoctrination, it is going to take some work.

Note: When the White House uses the word "initiative," it's a cue to see who's lifting your wallet, or destroying the environment.

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