There is a lot that happened during the post modern movement in the 60's and 70's, but one of the tools that was adopted by the left during that time was the dynamic use of language. Basically, post modern philosophers questioned our ability to know any truth. This included language, which introduced a fluidity in defining words. Since language is a social construct, you can define them however you like. When you combine that idea with critical theory, it's only logical that language should leveraged to gain political power. It's very interesting to watch regular people try to explain away sayings like, "Defund the police." They know they don't actually want that, but have no problems picking up a mantra, so long as the words can be explained in a way that makes sense. I feel like it's a form of brainwashing, but, I haven't gotten to read up on it as much as I'd like. Like most concepts, once you get into the literature, the motivations become more clear. It might be my next deep dive. I want to either read up on language or gaslighting (and there is probably some overlap there).

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