Rage and blame over new abortion law in the US. The far right and left slide apart in the recent French election. In Sweden a loud and hateful government crisis over how the Minister of Justice handle crime and immigration. Political language gurus explain in the postcast Your Undivided Attention.
Let’s not mention the information war between Russia and the West.
Volume seems to have been turned up and respect down in the political language in many countries. Less is said in a sane respectful way. Add that nothing needs to be really true and everything is possible, as Russian journalist Peter Pomerantsev puts it.
It makes me scared. Even more so when historians compare our times with the 1930-ties. I need to work hard to keep hope up.
This recent podcast, from Your Undivided Attention, made me somewhat positive. Political language gurus Drew Westen and Frank Luntz share, with a remorseful undertone, insights onhow to oppose bad political language.
Here is Tristan Harris lead for the podcast:
“Democracy depends on us choosing our views on political issues. But when the language used to describe those political issues is engineered in a laboratory to be divisive and can produce a 15-point difference in what we think about the political issues, are we choosing our views or is the language choosing our views for us?”