“Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance.” — Albert Maysles
I’ve spent some time thinking about and then dissecting what could be called popular political slogans lately and there seems to be a common theme: They don’t mean what they say.
Some examples may help.
Defund the police!
No, we don’t mean defund the police as in prevent from continuing to receive funds, which is the definition of defund. Of course we need police! Defund the police is really about reforming the manner in which we distribute funds for policing (or something like that) and if you are assuming that it means anything else, like something close to its definition, then you must be just plain dumb or morally corrupt.
Gender is a social construct!
Well, yes, we all know that sex and gender these days is thought of as being different things but never mind that gender is related to sex by a factor of 0.99. Also, you must abandon any ideas about the mechanical/biological obvious differences between men and the manner in which procreation shapes our personal choices in life. Any assumption that our societies are formed by both biology and the social impacts of our culture will be dismissed or at the very least treated with contempt and suspicion as to the motives of anyone who states otherwise.
The personal is political!
Wait, what? You think that “The personal is political” means that we think the personal is political?! How daft! Of course there are things outside the political and we are not supporting a totalitarian concept. Why would you think we mean what we say?
My body my choice!
But, only if and when that choice you make is a choice that we agree with politically. Otherwise we don’t care about your choice and instead of providing you with information to help you make good choices, we will shame you and dehumanize you. You will be “the other” much like has been done with other groups of outsiders as a means of collating emotional power against the outsiders.
We need to uplift voices of color!
Well, only a very specific group that we pre-approve of and can rescind that approval at any sign of them stepping off of the idea plantation. So, if you’re a comedian who tells a heart-breaking story about your transgender friend who committed suicide after being bullied by trans-activists, you need to shut up. Or, if you’re an economist and social theorists with fifty plus books and mountains of empirical evidence on ethnic issues internationally that doesn’t fit our narrative, we’ll just ignore you as if you don’t exist.
This is why I generally dislike slogans overall. Very rarely do they actually mean what they state. A great example of a proper slogan is my personal favorite: “I am a man.” Civil rights protestors of the 1960’s often carried signs that simply stated that. It was true, it was completely accurate, and it came with a deep meaning that spoke to the sweeping nature of the history of equality based on universal truths about humanity.
Not to mention that the etymology of the word “slogan” comes from the Celts who used it to describe the battle cry of the dead. How appropriate for those destroying the thing that makes us human.
There is something incredibly insidious about using words that don’t mean what they state to define incredibly nuanced problems. It challenges the thing that makes us different from animals: Our capability to reason.
The best definition for reason I can find is non-contradictory identification. When you use words to identify something and then challenge people who take them to mean what they state, you are not being deep and complicated. You are challenging the very nature of someone’s human capacities. There is nothing more dehumanizing to an individual than to challenge their capacity for reason.
Even from a religious standpoint — or even mythical — the nature of humanity is found in the logos which is the word of God that is central to all creation. This is the nature of the concepts behind the word creating the order of our reality, the breath of life that animates Adam, and the truth that Christ speaks of.
There is nothing more fundamental to humanity than speech for human beings, and precision in speech is what sets our world in order.
Be precise in your speech if you want anyone to take you seriously.