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Health & Fitness

The Importance of Words—And Definitions

He who controls the language controls the debate, so let's decide on some common meanings of the language.

The Book of Genesis tells the story of the Tower of Babel, an early, but powerful,
indicator of the power in changing language. He who controls the language, controls the argument, is a well-known truth. Over the past 40 years, those who would change our way of life have done a great job in changing the meaning of key words in a way that reflects a different understanding than the
original usage. It is hard to reach common goals when we are speaking different languages.

An example would be the word Progressive used in political circles. Progressives tell us they are leading the way to a new world, a fair world, a world of big government, a world of big taxes on success, and a world with big restrictions on private enterprise. The Progressives do not mention this is a very old idea which brings frustration and a repeated history of failure whenever it has been tried.

A true Progressive Party is the Conservative movement, a group celebrating the individual and free choice. Conservatives are wary of self-proclaimed smart people, in government and academia, telling us what is in our best interest. The Conservative plan, with a reliance on capitalism, is a rarity in history, but when
practiced, it is the reason the human race advances.

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More examples of stolen words could be transparency, fair, entitlement, investment, and dope. Who is in charge of assigning these words new meaning?

Once, the word dope was an adjective, today it is a noun. If we use the adjective, are we obviously old, uneducated or just dopey, for not understanding the change? These questions are asked because certain words have become politically correct. In the past you could get a clue to how a person felt by listening to their language. Today, using politically correct verbiage, people are able to hide their true beliefs and goals. Instead of listening to the real person, we hear a politically correct robot, spouting acceptable language, without revealing their true self.  We  need to get clues to behavior and beliefs by listening to people speak in an honest manner.

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I would like to suggest corrections for a few words.

In the future, Progressive, will mean wistful dreamer. 

Conservative will mean a person working to make a life for themselves and their family with limited government interference.  

Bureaucrat will mean a person who trades opportunity, for the protection of a good paying government job, where layoffs are rare. 

Elected Official will be someone who leaves private life to represent the people in their area, for a short period of time. 

Town hall meeting will be something that takes place monthly, where elected representatives explain their votes, and ask for input from voters. 

Reporter will be someone who is skeptical of all government, and represents the people, in seeking out corruption and variance from the Constitution. Reporters are honest people, who take pride in tough questioning of all parties, their only goal being the truth. 

Elections will be where people, who can prove they are citizens, cast a vote for their representatives. 

Debates will feature people with differing views who meet and discuss their views, in front of citizens, without the input of third parties. Debates will be mandatory for all people running for public office.

I move we get back to what words actually mean, we hold ourselves accountable to use the language in a proper context, and we celebrate those who enlighten us.

Does anybody agree that we don’t need the popular press, special interest groups, academia, and the government telling us what words to use in day-to-day conversations?  In Europe and Canada there are laws against using words the government has determined to be prejudicial, hateful or disruptive.

Isn’t it better to know the person has a distinctly different view, than listen to someone mouthing words because they know it hides their true identity? We must use the true meaning of words and not be limited to politically correct words with definitions different than common meaning.  

God changed the language to stop the building of the Tower of Babel; politicians, the press and interest groups have changed today’s language with the same goal, to stop progress on a project. The project, in this case, is individual freedom.

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