The Weapon of Language
17th May 2021
ZMan takes a look under the covers.
In a world where the end always justifies the means, even when the end is not achieved, truth must always be a secondary consideration. In fact, the truth is often the enemy, as it serves the interests of your opponents. By attacking the truth of something, or even the concept of truth itself, you take away the legitimacy of the opposition to you and your schemes. When morality is determined by who wins, rather than by some objective standard, partisanship is the new morality.
This is the modern age. You see it in the language. The public space is full of people juggling neologisms that have a nice ring to them as a replacement for old words or labels. They sound better and the best people always love hearing new ways of saying old things. It makes them feel smart and sophisticated. The intellectual in a liberal democracy is primarily concerned with appearing to be unconventional and heterodox, so the new words and phrases quickly become popular.
Popularly used smears are ready to hand. ‘Price gouging’. ‘Profiteering’. ‘Robber baron’. ‘Windfall profit’. ‘Pay your fair share’. ‘Oligarch’. ‘Racist’. ‘Sexist’. ‘Bigot’. ‘Homophobe’. ‘Islamophobe’. ‘Denier’. ‘Black market’.