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BWS — It's so easy to hate a label
Published: 2017-01-17 15:32:48 +0000 UTC; Views: 2225; Favourites: 78; Downloads: 34
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From a series of memes I published at my blog: www.webomator.com/2017/01/17/t…
Take an idea, or a piece of legislation, or an issue that you don’t like; make up a short, dismissive name for it that your voters are certain to hate; and use that label, and no other language, to describe the issue. This is like the straw man argument in that you’re fighting against a thing you’ve invented rather than the real thing.
That’s why the Affordable Care Act is referred to as Obamacare; why the alleged results of that plan were called Death Panels; and why the inheritance tax is called the Death Tax.
Among the rank and file short, derisive names are applied to people, as well. “Obummer” for Obama is one example. And unfortunately the folks on the other side have begun to do this, too.
It’s relatively hard to hate a real person. But it’s pretty easy to hate a label, especially when that label was designed to make you hate.
Labels are simple; real things are complicated. You don’t get anywhere by debating a label. Real disagreements are about the things the labels misrepresent.
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Comments: 4
"If you want to converse with me, first define your terms.” - Voltaire
The field of semantics is built on the meaning assigned to words, and the specific things that are implied when a word is used. This is one reason why it is so important for people to understand the meanings of the words they use, and to not go around inventing new ones unless the word is useful, comprehensible and clear.
However, labels, by themselves, are not a bad thing. We use them to determine which movies contain graphic violence, which genre a video game belongs to, and whether a box contains cereal or rat poison. It's only when the meanings of words are ignored that the purpose of these labels is undermined.
If, on the other hand, a thing has grave implications, referring to it with a word intended to express those implications would seem to be a matter of accuracy, rather than deception. At times, yes, labels may give people an excuse to avoid paying closer attention to the real issues, but at other times, they merely make it possible for people to comprehend the actual truth beneath pages of legal jargon and red tape. Those of us who have the ability to understand these issues in their full complexity should, therefore, study each new term, to determine whether it accurately captures the substance of the issue, before we condone its use or use it ourselves.
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