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Post by Smurfette Principle on Jan 7, 2011 21:39:12 GMT -5
I recently had a talk with my mother, and she explained to me one of the ways Republicans are manipulative: buzzwords. Like "death panels." Or, as it is now, " job-killing health care reform." All they have to do is repeat the thing over and over, and soon it is ingrained in the collective American hive mind. So, two questions: one, do Democrats have similar buzzwords that they spread through the media and stuff? And two, is there any sense behind the phrase "job-killing health care reform"? Is it actually killing jobs somewhere, or is this a "death panel"-esque scare tactic? |
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Post by ltfred on Jan 7, 2011 21:45:55 GMT -5
If the policy is successful it will shrink the vast, wasteful bureacracy that is America's private insurance industry. In that sense it might cost a few jobs, maybe even a lot. On the other hand, it will save America from health-cost-based financial ruin.
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Post by Thejebusfire on Jan 7, 2011 21:46:20 GMT -5
I think it's because they believe that the bill will harm smaller business that couldn't afford to provide health insurance. Or something like that.
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Post by devilschaplain2 on Jan 7, 2011 21:46:56 GMT -5
I'm probably biased as a leftwinger but I'm sure someone on the right would compare such phrases to slogans like "Bush lied, kids died."
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Post by MaybeNever on Jan 7, 2011 21:56:49 GMT -5
Of course the Dems have buzzwords. Every group does. "Green" is a good example - the term just means some vague Earth-friendly idea without any defined substance, and it plays to environmentalist liberals. "Undocumented workers" is another good one in the immigration debate, or "anti-choice" for pro-lifers. Ooh, and "diversity".
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Post by Tiger on Jan 7, 2011 22:43:42 GMT -5
I'm probably biased as a leftwinger but I'm sure someone on the right would compare such phrases to slogans like "Bush lied, kids died." I'd never heard that sentence in my life 'til just now. Of course, that's objectively true, while "death panels" are objectively false and the juxtaposition of "job-killing" with "health care reform" is misleading at best, regardless of how true it is. |
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Post by Amaranth on Jan 8, 2011 2:44:37 GMT -5
I'm probably biased as a leftwinger but I'm sure someone on the right would compare such phrases to slogans like "Bush lied, kids died." I'd never heard that sentence in my life 'til just now. Of course, that's objectively true, while "death panels" are objectively false and the juxtaposition of "job-killing" with "health care reform" is misleading at best, regardless of how true it is. There's plenty of variants: Bush lied, thousands died. When Clinton lied, no-one died. Etc. the thing is, the Republicans have managed some really good marketing, and the Dems haven't. I think the fact that you haven't heard the above is kind of a testament to that. It looked like we were going to see better "branding" of the Dems with Obama's "Hope and Change" stuff, but it hasn't worked out that way. |
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Post by Haseen on Jan 8, 2011 7:13:52 GMT -5
I can't think of any liberal catchphrases that are deliberate lies like a lot of the right wing ones. "Tax cuts for the rich", "Proposition h8", and "global warming denial" are quite popular, and also quite accurate.
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JamaicanJesus
Full Member
I like my chinese food made fresh
Posts: 151
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Post by JamaicanJesus on Jan 8, 2011 7:18:11 GMT -5
liberals like to use the words 'ignorance' and 'intolerance' as buzzwords toward the conservative views on social issues. that alone has left a bad taste in my mouth for liberals. people don't even know what the word ignorant means anymore.
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Post by The_L on Jan 8, 2011 8:20:33 GMT -5
liberals like to use the words 'ignorance' and 'intolerance' as buzzwords toward the conservative views on social issues. that alone has left a bad taste in my mouth for liberals. people don't even know what the word ignorant means anymore. Simple. A person who complains about the constitutionality of various things, then is shocked by a statement in the Constitution that most people learn in middle school, is ignorant. A person who thinks a ban on masturbation is at all enforceable is ignorant. A person who thinks that picking a complete idiot for a running mate when he's in poor health won't cost him the election is an idiot. |
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Post by JonathanE on Jan 8, 2011 8:25:32 GMT -5
I agree with JJ - the word ignorant has come to mean "rude" in common parlance.
It actually means "uneducated" or "uniformed", as in the sentence "I am completely ignorant of the facts of this debate".
It's one of my Grammar-Nazi pet peeves.
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Post by Julian on Jan 8, 2011 8:58:59 GMT -5
Republican buzzwords go deeper than that too. One classic example is "tax relief". It appears relatively straightforward, but immediately creates the powerful association that tax is painful, or an infliction, (and those poor long suffering rich people - yeh right) therefore anyone who is not for it is obviously a complete asshole, even though it's actually tax-cuts for the rich, and fiscally irresponsible, both in the long and short terms for pretty much everyone - the super rich included.
They then rub salt in the wound they just created by alleging that the taxes are being misspent.
They're a pack of Machiavellian cunts!
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Post by CtraK on Jan 8, 2011 9:00:07 GMT -5
There's plenty of variants: Bush lied, thousands died. When Clinton lied, no-one died. Etc. To be fair, when Clinton lied, a security guard in Sudan died. Albeit not as a direct consequence. It looked like we were going to see better "branding" of the Dems with Obama's "Hope and Change" stuff, but it hasn't worked out that way. That's because there's no hope. |
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Post by Julian on Jan 8, 2011 9:00:51 GMT -5
It's a tax rort, a tax break, tax exemption, or a tax waiver from government cronyism, it's not tax relief!
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Post by JonathanE on Jan 8, 2011 9:05:11 GMT -5
The U.S. health insurance "contreversy" truly cracks me up. The same arguments were used 40 years ago in Saskatchewan, when a democratic-socialist government actually legislated public health insurance. The EXACT same sky is falling, communistic takevoer, death panel, bullshit arguments prevailed. Fortunately, that government had the balls to say bullshit, the entire country followed suit within 10 years and I doubt that very many Canadians would want to go back to "free enterprise" medical insurance.
Fuck me...
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