TAYLOR: How to rise above manipulation of words

By Dan Taylor
Guest Contributor

I want to think out loud about how our use of words has become so twisted in the modern world.

The very definition and meaning of words are often twisted, oftentimes to fit political, cultural, or personal agendas.

We can see this on national debate stages, but more intimately, in localized manipulators that we all see in our day-to-day lives.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹

The socialist political organizer Saul Alinsky has a chapter in his book “Rules for Radicals” in which he talks about the modern manipulation of words to gain political favor, but this has existed for the past 100 years (at least, but I don’t want to dive beyond that). 

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was failing miserably under Mao Tse-tung, with hundreds of millions starving. Under this regime it was illegal to own the grain you grew (ironic when you consider owning the “means of production”), one community set up a secret contract (which was punishable by death) to save a portion of the grains they grew to feed their own families, and if the breadwinner was killed for saving this grain, the rest of the community would donate some of their profits to the family to ensure they continued to eat after the breadwinner's death. The community did so well in producing much more grain for the CCP, that the CCP sent officers to investigate. When they found this contract with the community and the privately held grain, instead of murdering the entire town, the CCP adopted the system as “New Communism." In turn, all they built was another form of fascism, but the altering of the wording allowed China to go from a starving communist nation to a fascist nation competing globally within a generation. 

This happens everywhere in modern times. It's not socialized health care, it's “Obamacare”, it's not corporate handouts, it's “Too big to fail”, it’s not funding a war effort, it's “humanitarian aid”.

Simply: if your ideas aren’t popular, rename them.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹

In our culture, and throughout time, we see this same tactic used to force cultural change. In the cultural aspect, I see it more as more often as “accuse others of what you do” -- projection.

This projection is dangerous and utilized to target people groups. 

One of Adolf Hitler’s projections was that the Jews were on a path to global dominance and tyranny ... while he tried to conquer all of Europe and implemented tyranny.

Both Democrats and Republicans claimed the other side colluded with Russia to steal an election if they lost (look at 2016 and 2020).

Today Christians are often projected against for not being “inclusive” while personally practicing their religion. The irony is the exclusivity in the name of inclusivity.

Look at the sexual exploitation of children, which is undeniably seeping through our culture. People wanting to protect against such attacks are called hateful and the aggressor against the aggressor of the victims. Sometimes even being called a groomer for attempting to expose grooming. It is the projection that prevents the majority of people from speaking out against evil. Many of these dangerous predators are hiding within other movements as well, hiding behind groups that are often seen as marginalized to increase the effectiveness of the projection.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹

Let’s sidestep culture and politics and get to a topic everyone can likely relate to.

I feel grateful that I have encountered many master manipulators in my life and have gone through the other end wiser, not broken.

I work in politics so these master manipulators are commonplace and often gain success. 

The words they use and the projection we see in these manipulators are skillful and not designed to convince you of anything, but designed to convince everyone around you of a narrative. I’ve seen dozens of times several of these manipulators’ good ideas become their credit and failed projects of their own became others' fault. They will utilize partial and limited communication (blocking people, group chats without key people, personal text blasts) to create a following of people who will follow their narrative verbatim. Manipulators who are really good at this will create rings of silos of followers. The center being the most rewarded and the edges being the most ostracized. In “The 48 Laws of Power” Law 6 is “court attention at all cost” and Law 27 is “Play on people’s need to believe to create a cult-like following.” I’ve seen these two laws used to create these rings of manipulation several times.

Manipulators use these redefinitions of words and siloed rings of information to spread information, and remain truthful, while not fully honest. Handing out partial information to several different people so that a favorable assumption is made, while a negative assumption is made about others. Never giving the other necessary details for a full conclusion. Lying by omission.

Conclusions

Be very careful of the use and misuse of words. We often allow subtle misuses of words as to not embarrass those using the words. Wondering if it was an accident or just ignorance. Oftentimes it is not and is intentional. C.S. Lewis in his book “The Great Divorce” gives a metaphorical tale of two groups of people that live in the same plane of existence, but two radically different worlds. One group lives in the misery of the hell they create, living in a world fabricated by their own personal “truth” and worldview, and another group accepts reality and truth and lives in harmony and forgiveness of one another’s downfalls and failures.

Learn to see these manipulations of words, and you will protect yourself from much heartache.

Dan Taylor is a political consultant and national campus director for Young Americans for Liberty. @TheLibertyDan