right-wing tactics: dripping derision and the sneer
it took me a while to clue in to the notion that the term "obamacare" was supposed to be an insult.
when i first read the term, i thought, *cool*, a democrat will get his name etched into public consciousness and tightly associated with something that will help a lot of people! i bet fdr wished we referred to it as "roosevelt social security" or lbj, "johnson medicare".
then i kept seeing defensive liberals writing about how they should stop using that term, and getting all hot and bothered by it. i didn't understand it at first.
then i realized why.
i don't get my news from t.v. i rarely watch right-wingers or even main$tream talking heads these days. gave it up nearly 10 years ago and my blood pressure is much lower for it.
it finally dawned on me that it was all in the way they were saying it. the pause, the emphasis, the sneer, "oBAHHmacare". the art of imbuing an ordinary or neutral word with negative emotions so that people feel bad just hearing the word. there was often *nothing* negative in their transcripts, or at least nothing much objectionable. it was all in the way they said it, just as it was with "liberal", for example.
you can't have an intellectual conversation with these people and we're fools to try. if we make an earnest policy proposal and all they have is to try to make people feel like they touched something cold and slimy, we have to address this head on. we can't keep presenting charts and graphs. we have to country their emotional appeals.
call it out, counter-attack, hit them over the head with it.
make it obvious.
we can't let them play this game and get away with it.
yes, their game is childish, but, just as with a child, ignoring it is rarely the best response.
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