Languages and Linguistics

Conservatives use words as weapons. This was apparent to us older folks as the twisty maze of definitions snots like Bill Buckley used to color words like freedom, liberty and so on.

The color was the goal. To make his/their rich privileged white boy meaning the accepted one.

Since those days, republicans have been taken over by a cult mentality. Words are used only for effect. To objectivize "others" not in the cult, to build cult cohesion which is commonly built around a monoculture and racism, the engine that powers fascist wannabes, and to make targeting others fun and easy.

Since the words bear no relation to actual meaning, they vary, as in the cult's outrage du jour, and statements often contradict themselves, as they target others and "justify" their own sins and crimes.

This happens with projection, where "every accusation is a confession" so the meaning changes to suit the cult's unity.

A cult generally has no purpose but to cohere the cult by legitimizing delicious sins and crimes normally off-limits to ordinary "schmucks", to benefit the leader, and always at the expense of the zombified cult members.

I ran into the codewords/dog whistles of "woke", "agenda" and "playbook" on a thread in the tech-bro Hacker News forum. And threw them right back.

The GOP cult uses words only to harm others, with no regard to meaning in any sense. "It means what I want it to mean".

As with all cults, the hard core in resistant to logic, because their only logic is cult logic.

As with advertising, the jingle is attractive, until you find that the product is eating you. More so every day.