It’s incredible the way that the right wing has subtly and carefully created a change in our language. It’s the old Big Brother double-speak — they’ve ironically taken the political correctness of the left that they always decry and made it their own, creating a new language that obfuscates what they’re really saying, wrapping it in a candy coating.
Today I was reading a story in the newspaper about a Christian performance duo. In every instance, the Washington Post referred to their activities as “faith-based.” My God (no pun intended), how did this unwieldy and ridiculous phrase become the norm so quickly, and why does the Post embrace it? What’s wrong with just saying “religious”? How did the conservatives manage to change the way we speak in such a short space of time?
Karl Rove and his army of linguistic machiavellis understand the emotional weight of words. They realize that “religious” is a pejorative word and turns people off — but who could be against “faith”?
Other examples of their work: “death tax” rather than “estate tax”; “Democrat party” instead of “Democratic Party”.
I think it’s time for a conservative to English dictionary. Maybe I’ll start working on that one soon.
