Weaponising Words

Brad MacClure - 14 October 2024

I was thinking the other day about the lyrics of the Mark Knopfler song “Sailing to Philadelphia” . It’s a gorgeous song, recorded as a duet by Knopfler and James Taylor. It’s all about the chaps who surveyed the Mason-Dixon line. You should have a listen.

There’s a line in the song: “You talk of liberty…How can America be free?” and I couldn’t recall at the time if the word used in that line was “talk” or “speak”. So I started thinking about the difference, and pondering the choice of words in songs and speeches in general.

Does it matter? Well, clearly to some folks no, it doesn’t. To me it does, but I have to be the first to admit that there are most likely huge holes in my understanding of what the words I say actually mean to others who hear or read them.

Take that line in the song. To me if you say “you talk of…” To me it sounds less formal and less authoritative. To be clear, I mean that the songwriter is showing less respect for the person who “talks”; putting less weight in their words. Maybe implying that the person could be ignorant, at least flippant, and inclined to speak without thinking, or without good context. If you change it to “You speak of…” I feel like it now evokes more of a sense of authority. It could also mean that now you think the speaker is a bit pompous, or over assertive. So (and this is in the specific context of the song), it could still imply a lack of respect for the speaker, or perhaps respect, but still disagreement.

I could be entirely wrong about this. If I’m not wrong though, does this difference go right over the heads of most people? Or are there people right now stewing over something I said years ago, or last week, when I meant something entirely different to what they got? I have no idea, but questions like these literally keep me awake at night (yes, I know how sad that is). How can we know that what we say has the intended effect at the other end? What’s the solution? I don’t know.

I realise that I touched on this almost exactly two years ago. Back then in an article for the newsletter I wrote about words and phrases like “woke” and “virtue signalling”. Re-reading my article from back then, I think I can see now what some of the consequent disagreement with my article was about, by the way. I argued that we all virtue-signal all the time, because that’s how we’ve evolved to communicate. I think at the time I ignored the possibility that the term is mostly reserved in common usage to mean when the action is motivated by a desire to gain advantage, or to excuse other bad behaviour, or I suppose for any reason, other than to influence others in order to effect positive change in the world. So, yes, virtue-signalling can be counter productive, but so can using the term to dismiss someone’s words or actions.

A few words and phrases that have become loaded terms

“Loaded terms” are terms designed to elicit an emotional response. All of these words are just words. They’re not inherently bad, they’ve just gained meanings over time outside of their original context.

“Ignorant” The word just means lacking knowledge. I call myself ignorant all the time, for good reason. I’m ignorant about many many things. I’m especially ignorant of the effect my words have on people. I suspect that this word gets regarded as synonymous with “obnoxious” or “rude” sometimes, or as “willful ignorance”. It’s often seen as an insult to call someone ignorant, which, to be fair, often it’s meant that way.

I once heard Sam Harris say, in response to a query from a guest, “let me educate you on that…” to which his guest got really mad, and said “I’m not uneducated…” So Harris had to explain he wasn’t implying his guest was uneducated. I guess even clever people like Sam Harris can miscommunicate from time to time.

“Cancel culture” There have been times when the Skeptics have made a venue aware that the person they are hosting may not align with their values, and the venue has elected to cancel that event. This is what some people call cancel culture. I’ve had conversations with people who disagree with the tactic of contacting venues like this. I personally think the action can be appropriate, but I also understand where the disagreement comes from. However my point here is that the term has evolved to have a negative connotation.

“Free speech” Most people would agree, I think, that a culture of free speech is a good thing. Sadly, though, we get bogged down in the details sometimes, like saying that folks who engage in cancel culture are curtailing free speech. Are we obligated to hand a megaphone to someone who spouts misinformation? I would say no, and, in essence, this is why I agree in principle with the practice of informing venues, as stated above.

“Gaslighting” Originally from a 1944 movie “Gaslight”, about a chap who tries to make his wife think she’s going mad by adjusting the gaslights, the term has come to mean messing with someone to try to make them doubt their own sanity. It also seems to have evolved to mean blaming someone else for a problem that you created.

“Global warming” Nowadays we say “climate change”, because the term global warming was so misunderstood. Deniers point to a cold day, or extreme weather, and say “so much for global warming”, even if that weather they’re pointing at is precisely the thing that climate science predicted. If you hear someone say “global warming”, it may be that they’re just still using the old term innocently. Or they might be using it because they think it’s easier to knock down and ridicule as a concept (even though it’s still a very true thing).

“Leftist” or “Radical Leftist” Leftist to me immediately conjures an image of a person with extreme world views - maybe someone who doesn’t understand that our society is built on capitalism, whether you like it or not. I think calling a person a “Leftist” just because they voted Labour, or think we should have good healthcare, or believe in climate change, is probably a straw man or a case of the ‘poisoning the well’ fallacy.

“Fascist” This word has lost its original meaning in many contexts. It still has one, and fascism still exists, but it’s probably not helpful telling someone they’re a fascist. Especially online!

These examples are just the words which sprung to mind while I was typing. There will be many more. The purpose of this little rant has been simply to draw attention to the fact that the meaning of words evolve, but regardless of that fact, there’s another issue: Everyone has different experiences and different biases. Everyone has gaps in their knowledge too. The word you’re saying may sound/read completely differently to the listener or reader than it does to you. It’s a moving target, unfortunately, but we have to think about how our language appeals to others if we want to continue to make the world a better place.