How Specific Terms Shape our Political Reality
Words can be weapons.
Words can shape the way we think and act.
When it comes to the political landscape, politicians and media outlets have been weaponizing and manipulating words to fit their framework and messaging for as long as human history. But the words they use aren’t just able to dictate what we think about a story or how we perceive a candidate, they can warp our very reality.
Both parties use specific phrases/terms to bolster their arguments and invalidate the opposition.
For example, terms like pro-choice vs pro-life both have powerful connotations. The Democrats are pushing a narrative of liberty and the right to your own body, so they emphasize that the abortion argument is all around choice. However, the Republicans’ argument is centered on the morality of the decision, not the constitutionality, so they focus on life.
We see this play out with terms like “illegal alien” vs “immigrant” or “refugee”; with the entire Black Lives/All Lives Matter movements; with ever-changing ethnic terms like “Indian” to “Native American” to “Indigenous” to “First Nations” people.
But did you know that the words “liberal” and “conservative” have been used to define the entire spectrum through which you understand politics?
According to THE THEORY OF LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY, your language dictates the perception of your reality. If your language has 100 words for water but one word for anger, then your view of water will be vast but your understanding of anger will be nearly non-existent.
Because our political world is defined in terms of liberal vs conservative, our reality has been bent to only accommodate for things on this binary graph. Words like “libertarian”, “fascist”, “communist”, and others have to fit into this schema (this lens through which we understand politics) or the words just don’t many any sense.
But if you have dozens of words for anger, like English does, then your reality will encompass feelings of agitation, wrathfulness, frustration, irritation, and so much more.
The United States has gotten increasingly worse at this.
As political divides deepen, the ability to add nuance to this spectrum seems to fade away. Now, if you identify as conservative, it means that you also agree with things like white supremacy and Nazism. If you identify as a liberal, it means you agree with the violent protests and censorship.
We have created a linguistic narrative in which there are only two options, then we’re surprised when people become extremist.
It is time that we step back from these all-of-nothing terms and binary political options in order to open our reality up to nuance and understanding.