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). 

Statesman endorsement process of County Judge tilted in favor of Democratic incumbent, complete with mystery quote

That the Austin American-Statesman did not endorse the Republican candidate at the top of the countywide ballot is no surprise.

Even if the Houston Chronicle broke loose of the usual gravitational pull toward Democratic candidates and endorsed Republican contender Alexandra del Moral Mealer over Democratic incumbent Lina Hidalgo, the Statesman's top editors predictably held on to their familiar ground in the left-leaning capital of a conservative state.

Yet Travis County Judge challenger Rupal Chaudhari was right to be hopeful. Change is in the air, for reasons already predicted in numerous media outlets in the weeks leading up to this election. The issues she has raised are not the typical red versus blue struggles in D.C., or under the Pink Dome for that matter. Chaudhari has outraised and from what we can tell outworked Democratic incumbent Andy Brown. She's a candidate for the people, and to that there has been little to no questions throughout the entire year of her campaign.