No: by controlling the media. If you control the media, you get to pick the language.
We could think of other examples too.
Regarding homosexual marriage, it has been called “marriage equality” by the liberals. The media have been cheerleaders for homosexual marriage for years, and they have picked up the “marriage equality” meme. After all, who could be against equality? This ties in with liberals desire to change the definition of marriage by comparing it to civil rights movements of the past.
And if the Supreme Court ever imposes homosexual marriage on all 50 states, such a ruling will be compared to the decision in 1967 which overturned bans on interracial marriage in some states. That narrative is already written.
Considering how the media carries water for the liberals on these causes and word choices, it’s not surprising they gain traction with their narratives of the issues of the day.
Even this list leaves out the most egregious example of the usurpation of a word.
The word, of course, is “GAY.”
I called a planned parenthood street hustler a baby killer to his face the other day. Just trying to preserve the truth through language.
Ping
I'd say that 'Lakoff' rhymes with 'jack off', which is a synonym for 'jerk off', of which 'jerk' is an apt description of the guy (just controlling a little language of my own here)...
The only major example of the right winning the terminology battle was “partial birth abortion”. The left sqealed about that term sticking and tried to insist on using the medical term “dilation and extraction” to make it seem inoffensive.
Whenever a liberal mentions “pro-choice” to me, I say, “you mean pro-abortion?”, and become very angry. Same with “undocumented workers”; I say, “you mean illegal aliens?”.
I could imagine Pres. Carter trying out insurance reform, but I can't imagine him ever referring to it as CarterCare. He had some dignity. Obama nada.
I’ve actually been thinking about this very topic quite a bit over the last few weeks. We really need to adopt Alinsky tactics and take the name fight to the Rats. The word “progressive” is way too comfortable. It implies progress, and who isn’t against progress. What we really need to do is call them what they are: Extremists. When referring to Rats on blogs, letters to the editor, internet comments and forums, barroom debates, etc., call then left-wing extremists, environmental extremists, economic extremists, abortion extremists, gay extremists, etc. This should become routine.
NPR controls the debate by having liberals talk about the issue, and then having conservatives talk about the ‘legislative process’. Equal time, unequal impact.
As well as owning the vocabulary and debate, the third leg of this stool is (almost) complete control of the mass media. You can’t go to a movie, watch TV, read most newspapers, read your child’s textbook, or see a commercial or ad without the constant reinforcement of liberal memes.
When was the last time you saw a person of color portrayed in anything less than heroic light? When was the last time the buffoon was NOT a bumbling, stupid white male oaf? Have you ever seen a current commercial where there’s a Smart Man and Dumb Woman?
We have slowly but surely become bound and gagged by political correctness, and to resist insures societal ostracism.
Two words I hate: Jingoistic and Proselytize, which mean: patriotic and spreading the Word about Jesus’s love for us. Only people who see evil in those two things uses those words.
They manipulate the language and destroy the meaning of words.
They’be been doing it since their ideological father uttered the words “Did God really say...”