The Words We Use and the Meanings We Attach To Them Matter.

Over the years, I have seen how the left distorts the meanings and contexts of words. Some years ago, when I was part of a project team tasked with installing manufacturing machines at pharmaceutical sites located in several different countries, I learned the hard way how difficult it is to communicate complex ideas with people who have a different interest in the outcome. I thought since the company put a lot of effort into implementing a common set of standards and procedures, we should be able to work together with a common understanding. But, with the machine vendor in Italy (a mistake from the beginning) and installation sites in UK, France, Australia and US, I learned a tough lesson in how wrong I was.
Even though we spoke using the same words and derived our understanding from common standards, the end result was still confused. It seemed we would agree in our meetings and then come back later with everyone producing something completely different. Maybe it was a cultural thing or corporate politics, but the job was much more difficult than it needed to be. This experience opened my eyes to how difficult it really is to communicate with people with goals not compatible with the true meaning of language.
The political polarization of this country (USA) is made much worse by this phenomena. I’m much older now and much much more cynical, so it is obvious to me that these distortions in language are intentional to prevent the communication of ideas to shut down debate.
Have you noticed how today’s protesters and rioters claim to be opposed to fascism. But, then they cry for universal income, free college, etc, etc. And then they refer to fascism as far right as if it is consistent with the conservative (or classical liberal) ideology. If they are asked what fascism is, I doubt you could get a coherent answer that doesn’t just ramble about racism and tyranny.
The terms “left” and “right” are misused constantly, especially when used to describe “fascism.” My understanding of “left” and “right” in the American political sense is:
• Left = government has more control of people’s lives. The further left the system goes, a small elite gains the power and wealth until totalitarianism is achieved unless people rise to stop it or the economic system supporting it collapses. More government results in less individual freedom.
• Right = government has less control of people’s lives. The further right the system goes, the more power and wealth is distributed to individual people until anarchy develops. Anarchy is a vacuum that is rapidly filled, usually be the most ruthless psychopath(s). Therefore, individual freedom is a very fragile condition.
Unfortunately, the European understanding of these terms confuse things even further. This confusion is used as weapon by the left to prevent meaningful debate.
In medieval France, when policy was discussed with the king, those opposed to the king’s policy would sit on the right side of the hall. I imagine the right side of the hall was not a safe place to sit. From this practice, “right” came to identify those opposed to the status quo which was usually the monarchy.
Mussolini founded the Fascist party in Italy after the First World War. Before the war, the Socialists were the most powerful group in the government and were in the majority against entering the war. As the editor of the Socialist party newspaper, Mussolini had a lot of influence in getting Italy to join the war on the side of the Allies. The faction supporting Mussolini’s quest for Italian glory became the Fascist party after the war and the rest of that story is well known. In the French tradition, during the conferences that eventually resulted in power shifting to Mussolini, the Fascists sat on the right side of the conference hall since they were opposed to the status quo and the Socialists sat on the left. Hence, Fascism is identified in the European sense as the “Right.” There never seems to be anything equivalent to an ideology that can be called the “Right” in the American sense.
The American “Left” ignores our meaning of the terms and equates fascism with the “Right” in the European sense when the fascist ideology is just a different flavor of the socialist progressive ideology supported by the American “Left.” They must project their own ideological flaws onto the other side or they need to answer very tough questions that destroy their argument. The elites can’t afford to allow the younger generation to learn what these words really mean or their ability to control the narrative breaks down.
If we are to regain the Republic our nation’s founding fathers gave us, we must regain control of language and force the debate on equal terms.