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CousinIT

(9,278 posts) Wed Jun 27, 2018, 09:14 AM Jun 2018

Trump has turned words into weapons. And he's winning the linguistic war.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/13/how-to-report-trump-media-manipulation-language

. . .Trump knows the press has a strong instinct to repeat his most outrageous claims, and this allows him put the press to work as a marketing agency for his ideas. His lies reach millions of people through constant repetition in the press and social media. This poses an existential threat to democracy.

Language works by activating brain structures called “frame-circuits” used to understand experience. They get stronger when we hear the activating language. Enough repetition can make them permanent, changing how we view the world.

Even negating a frame-circuit activates and strengthens it, as when Nixon said “I am not a crook” and people thought of him as a crook.

Scientists, marketers, advertisers and salespeople understand these principles. So do Russian and Islamic State hackers. But most reporters and editors clearly don’t. So the press is at a disadvantage when dealing with a super salesman with an instinctive ability to manipulate thought by 1) framing first 2) repeating often, and 3) leading others to repeat his words by getting people to attack him within his own frame.

Language can shape the way we think. Trump knows this. Here are some of his favorite manipulation techniques.

First, he weaponizes words. The modifier “crooked” convicted Hillary Clinton without a trial. The media’s constant repetition sealed the verdict. “Fake news” proclaims that the news is fake. The use of “fake” is designed to delegitimize the press itself. Trump also uses strategic name-calling to undermine the Russia investigation, tagging it as a “witch-hunt” by the “deep state” in an attempt to shift blame. It’s false, but when the press repeats it, his narrative wins.

The media perpetuated a Trump lie by repeating “spygate”, which falsely characterized the FBI informant as a spy. Once made, such a mistake by the press is hard to correct. . . .

Then there are what cognitive scientists call “salient exemplars” – well-publicized individual cases, where wide publicity leads the public to take them as having a high probability and typifying a whole class. Trump turns them into weaponized stereotypes. He is a master at defaming entire groups of people as liars, rapists, terrorists – or in the case of US law enforcement and intelligence agencies – agents of corruption.

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Trump has turned words into weapons. And he's winning the linguistic war. (Original Post) CousinIT Jun 2018 OP

So did Adolph Hitler in the 1930's. His lunacy cost millions of lives and ladjf Jun 2018 #1

the media -- who trade in words and have the power to shape the debate -- consistently help donnie unblock Jun 2018 #2

ladjf

(17,320 posts)

1. So did Adolph Hitler in the 1930's. His lunacy cost millions of lives and

Reply to CousinIT (Original post)

Wed Jun 27, 2018, 09:27 AM

Jun 2018

devastated most of Europe. Wake up America. Learn from history.

unblock

(52,511 posts)

2. the media -- who trade in words and have the power to shape the debate -- consistently help donnie

Reply to CousinIT (Original post)

Wed Jun 27, 2018, 09:46 AM

Jun 2018

the media can easily crush a democratic career over a wardrobe choice, a sigh, a funny pic or shout, or someone else's lies about them.

yet this same media claims to be powerless to push back in the slightest against donnie.

ordinary people who give incorrect information -- even if by accident -- to the media would be instantly deemed an unreliable source and would find it hard to get any airtime at all. if you're a reporter, why would you go to a source for bad information?

but with donnie, the media has always acted like their job is to propagate whatever nonsense he cares to utter. there's no journalistic rationale to support this. certainly there wasn't before he became president. even now that he's president, they never covered other presidents like this. why does donnie get a media that acts very much like his private propaganda network, or at least that causes him no pain?

editorially, the media's job is to find the story. yet they always say the story is whatever donnie wants the story to be.

the story was never the latest update in his "investigation" of a birth certificate. if there was a story at all, the story was how is it that a crackpot with an obvious racist lie is getting so much free airtime.

the story is how is it that we're descending into authoritarianism? why perpetuate donnie's hate and lies rather than write stories about why *he* is pushing hate and lies?

the media has consistently rolled over for donnie. if they don't support him outright, the perpetuate what he wants. at a minimum, they don't punish him for anything, even when he harms the media.

the media can be a huge player in donnie's downfall, and they need to do some serious soul-searching asap and decide if they're going to be journalists or propagandists.

history is watching.

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