The Understanding Project
  • Resources
  • Author
  • Books
  • Logic

Using The Language Of Others

6/15/2012

 
I recently heard a radio show host (a guest on another's show I have since forgotten) call pro-choice people “pro-abortion.” While this is true of a minority of those who call themselves pro-choice (those who would try to prevent women considering abortion from receiving pro-life information pamphlets or from requiring waiting periods or ultrasounds), I do not believe it is true of the majority. Many of those who call themselves pro-choice speak of their unease and concern that they might be ending a life, and many even admit that they would probably choose life themselves. Even after an email was sent to him by a listener, equating calling “pro-choice” “pro-abortion” with calling “pro-life” “anti-choice,” this radio host dug himself in deeper and continued his characterization, using an argument I admit I didn’t really understand.

I don’t believe this type of rhetoric is helpful. When one is debating another, it behooves us to adopt their language. I myself am pro-life, and I believe the pro-choice position can be defeated on its merits, but by representing my opponents as something they claim not to be, I hurt my own argument and only make enemies when I should be trying to find common ground, such as trying to minimize the number of abortions or perhaps promoting choice in other areas. I hope people can understand this.

The same phenomenon occurs in other areas. Homosexual activists refuse to use the word “marriage” as most people have always used it and refuse to admit that at least some of those who support traditional marriage aren’t homophobes. Others refuse to accept that in normal everyday language, corporations are not people and instead stick to the legal terminology, thus losing the larger argument by default of whether the government should be involved in regulating speech at all. I refuse to get bogged down by whether corporations should be called people or not; it’s all semantics (a rose by any other name); I would rather spend my time defending freedom of political speech.

Rush Limbaugh recently spoke of not wanting to lower himself to the education level of others, instead preferring to raise others up when speaking of what capitalism is, but he can’t raise anyone up who isn’t listening, and I wonder if the reason many tune him out is because they think of capitalism something that it is not, and hear him praising it. He may get better reception if he broadcasts the same message a different way, using a word other than capitalism to say essentially the same things.

When speaking to those we already agree with, we can use our own language, but if we are ever to reach those who disagree, one of us must adopt the language of the other. Don’t make the other guy do all the work; take the first step.


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Hi, I'm Dan. I like chocolate, hiking, and politics.

    Archives

    November 2019
    April 2019
    February 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    May 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    February 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010

    Categories

    All
    Abortion
    Al Gore
    Anarchy
    Animals
    Ann Coulter
    Anti-Semitism
    Approval Rate
    Barack Obama
    Bias
    Bill Clinton
    Budget Deficit
    Bush Bashing
    Bush-Bashing
    Bush-bashing
    Capitalism
    Center
    Christmas
    Civility
    Code Words
    Coffee Parties
    Collectivism
    Compromise
    Conservative
    Constitution
    Court Rulings
    Culture
    Debate
    Democrats
    Dick Cheney
    Discrimination
    Donald Trump
    Drew Weston
    Economy
    Education
    Environment
    Eric Holder
    Euthanasia
    Experience
    Flag Burning
    France
    George W Bush
    Glenn Beck
    Global Warming
    Health Care
    Hillary Clinton
    Historical Narrative
    Holiday
    Homosexual
    Huffington Post
    Humor
    Hypocrisy
    Immigration
    Independent
    Insult
    Insurance
    Iraq
    Israel
    Jared Loughner
    Jimmy Buffet
    John Kerry
    John Mccain
    Jon Stewart
    Joseph Stark
    Journalism
    Judith Curry
    Julian Assange
    Koran
    Liberal
    Libya
    Marginalization
    Marketing
    Marriage
    Media
    Memes
    Mike Huckabee
    Military
    Mit Romney
    Monopoly
    National Debt
    Occupy Wall Street
    Osama Bin Laden
    Partisanship
    Political Spectrum
    Pragmatism
    Prejudice
    Privacy
    Psychology
    Rachel Maddow
    Racism
    Recession
    Religion
    Republicans
    Rights
    Rush Limbaugh
    Sarah Palin
    Sean Hannity
    Semantics
    Sex
    Sexism
    Socialism
    Sources
    State Rights
    State Secrets
    Stephen Colbert
    Suicide
    Taxes
    Tea Parties
    Term Limits
    Theory
    Tom Tancredo
    Torture
    Unions
    Van Jones
    Wikileaks

    RSS Feed

Please check out my books!

  • Resources
  • Author
  • Books
  • Logic