{"id":952,"date":"2001-10-30T20:10:34","date_gmt":"2001-10-31T01:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=952"},"modified":"2001-10-30T20:10:34","modified_gmt":"2001-10-31T01:10:34","slug":"words_mean_thin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/10\/30\/words_mean_thin.html","title":{"rendered":"Words mean things"},"content":{"rendered":"

SpinSanity has a well-written story<\/a> on the hyperbolic use of “treason” and “patriotism” by commentators on both side of the political spectrum. It concludes:<\/p>\n

Those who value thoughtful, rational debate should be concerned when these terms are used irresponsibly by those who shape American political discourse. Their continued use to attack opponents will have two effects: to unfairly castigate political opponents and to dilute the terms of their real meanings. Neither outcome is a healthy one.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

A related story<\/a> notes that bandying about the term “war profiteer” (again, by both conservatives and liberals alike) is equally counterproductive. Indeed, this is a central theme of the site — trying to attack the use of “spin” and rhetoric to avoid reasoned discussion of the facts. It’s a good place to visit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpinSanity has a well-written story on the hyperbolic use of “treason” and “patriotism” by commentators on both side of the political spectrum. It concludes: Those who value thoughtful, rational debate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7669,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/01\/19\/spin_off.html","url_meta":{"origin":952,"position":0},"title":"Spin-off","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Jan-05 8:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Spinsanity is, alas, closing up shop. They did a fine job, up through the election, of fact-checking politicians on both sides, and even when I disagreed with some of their...","rel":"","context":"In "Fourth Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5202,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/10\/16\/spinning.html","url_meta":{"origin":952,"position":1},"title":"Spinning","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Oct-03 10:50am","format":false,"excerpt":"Spinsanity has their take on Moore and Dude, Where's My Country? (further detailed here). 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Putting aside Moore's claim to be in it for the humor, the column points out the...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1386,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/01\/15\/how_the_bush_ad.html","url_meta":{"origin":952,"position":4},"title":"How the Bush administration can avoid the Enron scandal","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Jan-02 7:42am","format":false,"excerpt":"The answer is easy and ironic. They can do it by taking a page out of the Clinton handbook and painting it as petty politics on the part of the...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2469,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/06\/18\/peaceful_distur.html","url_meta":{"origin":952,"position":5},"title":"Peaceful disturbance of the peace?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 18-Jun-02 10:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"When does disturbing the peace require an actual disturbance? Bush was invited to speak at the Ohio State commencement by representatives of the graduating class. 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