Words Have Meaning, Learning to Hear Them Twisted
I spend far too much time thinking about communication. The words we pick have meaning, connotation, and implicit context.
Consider the following phrases: I did well in my maths. It bit me in the arse. When I was at University.
All three phrases are phrases from the UK. They imply something.
When I say "the state argued …", I am choosing not to use the word "government". "The State" has different connotations than "the government". It helps to communicate.
One of my friends truly believes I spent time with an unnamed three letter agency doing "that sort of work". I didn't.
No matter how many times I tell him, "no", he doesn't believe me. Why does he believe this? My knowledge about things he knows are not commonly known, and a quiet competence in certain areas, along with a vocabulary taken from spending time around the military messes with his brain.
The only way he can make it all fit is to put me in the box labeled "spook".
The media knows this, they understand it, better than we do, in general. And they use it to tell a narrative that they want to tell.
NBC did a piece on PregerU. It turned into a hit piece. Dennis and Marissa go through the broadcast and show how words were twisted.
It is a long video, but well worth watching