Changing The Culture One Word At A Time

As conservatives watch their values under constant attack by the liberal media and her allies, they need to step back and look at some of the methodology being used. Words are powerful things and can be skillfully used either for good or evil.

Let’s look at some of the words added to the American vocabulary in recent years. When were the words traditional marriage, income inequality, white privilege, Islamaphobic, homophobic, and anti-abortion added to our vocabulary? What is the impact of these words?

The expressions traditional marriage and traditional family arose out of a need by the leftists activists to separate out those people who believed in the Biblical definition of marriage and family. The show Modern Family was created to use comedy to begin to dilute those concepts. Traditional marriage and traditional family values needed to be made ‘not cool.’ The expressions are used to diminish those people who believe that marriage is a church sacrament that is limited to one man and one woman and that family consists of two parents and their children. Income inequality is an expression used to create guilt in those people who work long hours, get an education, and succeed in what they are doing. We all have different gifts and are rewarded differently when we use those gifts. That will never change–an office worker will never be paid the same amount as a successful actor or successful NFL player. Meanwhile, there are also starving actors and football players that try but do not make the NFL or major movies. The expression white privilege is relatively new. The concept here is that if you are white, any success you may have obtained is due to your color rather than your efforts. It is another way to minimize the success of those people who work hard. Islamaphobic is an expression Muslim leaders dreamed up when they observed the success of the homosexual community with the use of the term homophobic. Why does the media say anti-abortion rather than pro-life? Because generally speaking people are more receptive to being for something rather than against it–thus the expression pro-choice rather than pro-baby killing.

This is how the political left subtly changes the culture and the way most of us view the major issues of the day. The next time you read a newspaper article or hear a news report, pay attention to the specific words used. The words used tell you a lot about the purpose of reporting the story in the media.

 

Are You A Racist If You Believe Something That Is True?

Hillary Clinton has gotten some rather unfavorable publicity in recent days because of her comment that at least fifty percent of Donald Trump’s supporters belong in a ‘basket of deplorables.’ Some of the media, being at times less than unbiased, has decided to back up her claim. Paul Mirengoff at Power Line posted an article today illustrating how easy it is for the media to use statistics to create a totally false impression.

The article cites the reporting of a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll which measured the views of Americans toward blacks.

This is how the poll was reported at Slate Magazine:

A significant slice of Americans expressed racist views against blacks, and those who identify as Donald Trump supporters are more likely to fall into that group, though Hillary Clinton supporters are definitely there too.

Well, that’s not exactly what the poll showed.

The article at Power Line reports:

What were the “racist views against blacks” that so many Americans expressed? The only ones that garnered anywhere close to 50 percent assent from Trump supporters (and 33 percent from Clinton’s) were that blacks are (1) more criminal and (2) more violent than whites.

But these opinions are true. Crime statistics show that the rate of criminality per capita, including violent criminality, is much higher among blacks than whites. In fact, blacks commit as many murders as whites even though they represent only a around 12 percent of the U.S. population.

It’s obviously unfair to infer racism among those who hold the correct view of the comparative criminality and violent criminality of blacks and whites. Some who hold this view may be racist, but they aren’t racist by virtue of holding the view.

A fairer statement would be that those who believe blacks and whites are equally criminal and equally violent are poorly informed.

Shouldn’t we be more interested in finding the cause of the problem than calling those who acknowledge the problem racists? Until we correctly identify the cause of the fact that blacks commit more crimes and are more violent than whites, we are not going to solve the problem.

As usual, I have a few ideas on the subject–we need to look at the breakdown of the family in the black community (and in the white community, but to a lesser degree) and the lack of fathers in the home. We also need to look at a culture that has somehow turned its back on setting a goal for its young people to be law-abiding, productive members of society (also a problem in the white community, but to a lesser degree). We need to look at what we are feeding our children on television, in music, and in video games. We need to make it fashionable for all young people to be a good student and find a way to provide a good education for promising students regardless of their family’s financial situation. We need to find a way to make being a successful black person (both in life and business) a desirable goal. I am not sure the federal government can do this, but local governments could be helpful in encouraging church and community programs to help children do better in school. These can be done with volunteers, retired teachers, and other adults who want to help.

Meanwhile, it accomplishes nothing to skew statistics in order to label your political opponents racists.