The other meaning of words

Islamophobe, homophobe, transphobe, xenophobe. (I did not realize until recently how many mental conditions I suffered from). But wait! I am not done yet. Racist, bigot, anti-Semite, sexist, and (my all-time favorite) misogynist. (I wonder what my mother would have thought of the idea that I am a misogynist.) But wait! I am not done yet. I forgot Joe Biden’s, feckless Joe’s, the mindless ideolog’s favorite: White supremacist, which I have been told again and again by Uncle Joe and the media that there is one in every bed and under every desk, even though I have never met one.  

And then there is the other meaning. This is despicable demonization by the powerful of the powerless; the American people are the target here. And since the American people cannot be heard anymore, it becomes a kind of truth. Sayin’ it makes it so, or as Joseph Goebbels once said: “The bigger the lie, said often enough, becomes truth.”

Demonization is always the tactic of last resort for defunct regimes and defunct institutions. You are evil! And since you can’t defend yourself, you are evil. No matter how many times you insist you aren’t what those with the microphones say you are, you will be shouted down. We see this all the time in American politics. Once the accusation has been lodged, (you are a witch!), you will never completely scrape it off. No amount of groveling or tear-soaked apologies will help. Plus, all these words have been weaponized, so your entire career will suffer, or, maybe, your career will be obliterated.

However, the constant braying of these words at the populace eventually starts to infuriate average Allen and average Anne. But then the guys, excuse me, them with the microphones accuse the people, the Americans peasant class, the populace, of hate or hate speech.

Free speech is now hate speech, according to CBS News. To put it another way, in America, you can only agree, you can never disagree with power. Which brings me to a maxim: have microphone, tell the truth, don’t have microphone, tell a pack of lies.

Every word I write here is a pack of lies if we believe Joseph Goebbels. However, there is always the other meaning, which nearly everyone thinks but is strongly dissuaded from saying.  (Saying it does not make it so.) Eventually, as time passes, those with the power to be heard come to be disbelieved, or their message is ignored because they are discredited: Donald Trump is an ogre: the ministry of manipulation caterwauls every day.

I believe nothing the press tells me; I only listen to it as an exercise in critical thinking.

The media elites in the news, in Hollywood, and on late-night television are like buzzing gnats that keep landing on my ear.

I swat them away and so do more and more average Allens and average Annes. Eventually, a critical mass is reached, and then there is change.

Image: www.quotecatalog.com