Media, academia bias shapes debate

Media, academia bias shapes debate

Words shape, deflect or often eliminate legitimate debate. They carry enormous power. Consider “gun control.” Who could be against controlling guns? But the real issue may not be control of guns but the eventual confiscation of them.

How about “affirmative action?” That sounds good. But it is in my opinion discrimination. I have had a number of black students and find them as intelligent and capable as whites or Asians. I think “affirmative action” is not affirmative at all and is an insult to blacks.

“Illegal aliens.” Well we can’t call them that because they are simply immigrants like the rest of us, except Native Americans. We must be politically sensitive.

Then there is socialism. We all want to be social and help the poor, right? Well socialism is the theoretical philosophy behind Marxism. Socialism doesn’t sound so innocent when we think of Communism, Stalin and Soviet Russia. And, of course Hitler was the leader of the German Socialist government even though academia has linked him to the political right. The 20th century saw the deaths of millions of humans at the hands of socialists. I guess they really were not about helping others.

What about the terms “pro-choice” and “partial birth abortion.” Those sound rather innocuous or medicinal. We are all in favor of choice. If one considers that the unborn baby is literally killed and in the case of partial birth abortion, the mostly born baby is murdered with scissors cutting the spinal chord. That puts a different slant on the issue, a picture obscured by the phrase, “pro-choice.”

The terminology shaping these and most issues today comes largely from left-wing academia and a very biased media. The political power in a nation resides with those who control its language.

Terry Schwartz

Winfield