|
Language used by conservatives
|
Reframes and reasoning
|
|
War on Terror
|
Iraq war
Referring to the Iraq war as the war on terror implies a non-existent connection between 9/11 and Iraq. Lakoff believes this is a big reason why a huge percentage of the population makes that erroneous connection.
|
|
Iraqi insurgency
|
Iraqis resisting the US occupation
Iraqis trying to win their country's freedom from the US occupation
"Insurgency" implies unwarranted resistance. The U.S. occupation is considered by many Muslims to be an affront to Islam. We have no way of knowing if there are members of the "insurgency" who would prefer less violent means than suicide bombing. For many Muslims, as for people of other faiths, the belief that their religious faith is under attack is a powerful motivator that may.
 Bumper sticker available
|
|
Abortion is immoral and should be illegal
|
1. Do you believe that the 28,000 women each year who get pregnant following a rape be forced to carry their rapists' children?
This is one of Lakoff's reframes, and I'd like to have one that better addresses the whole issue. Lakoff said the pro-choice movement is catching on to the fact that the word "choice" is going against them. "Choice" comes from a consumer vocabulary, and to a conservative, morality always trumps consumerism. A man who asked a question during Q&A offered these reframes: "Pro-life means mandatory motherhood," and, "The pro-choice movement is the wanted children movement."
2. Both parties endorse programs that result in the deaths of babies, children, and teens (the Republicans by unfunding social programs that protect children's health and safety). I'd like the two parties to work together to reduce the number of deaths. If the Republicans could find some flexibility on family planning, I could find some flexibility on ...
 Bumper sticker available
 Bumper sticker available
|
|
We need tax relief
|
We need to invest together in things we can't afford as individuals, like highways and the military.
In Lakoff's words, saying "tax relief" implies that taxes are an affliction and that therefore anyone who opposes relieving an affliction is a bad guy. Taxes are not actually an affliction, they are an investment, without which we would not have many of the crucial tax-funded realities of modern living. Examples: the interstate highway system, the internet, the GI Bill, the National Institutes of Health discoveries and training that formed the basis for the success of the pharmaceutical industry, and the national park system, among others — we paid for them together, and they have benefitted all of us.
|
|
Gay marriage is a threat to marriage and should be illegal
|
1. Do you think that the government should have the right to say who's allowed to marry who?
This is the reframe Lakoff suggests on his DVD. If you use it, you have to hope that your opponent doesn't say, 'I think it's a good thing that the government doesn't allow us to marry close relatives.'In his speech in Denver,Lakoff suggested that we avoid using the word "marriage" as it just reminds people of gay people having sex, which they find upsetting, and concentrate instead on the issue of civil rights. In my opinion that just postpones the inevitable discussion of the word 'marriage.' I prefer to question the idea that marriage needs protection.
2. We should extend civil rights to all our citizens.
3. Marriage has been a moral foundation of society for at least five thousand years, and it has survived worse challenges than this. It used to be illegal for people of different races to marry each other, and in the controversy over that, some people who broke the law were actually killed. Even the armed forces have survived the introduction of gays, and if it hasn't destroyed the military, why would it destroy marriage?
4.
Do you know any interracial couples? It used to be illegal for them to get married, and now that's legal, and marriage is still a strong institution. It benefits everybody if more people are stabilizing their communities by getting married.
5. (If it's about the Bible saying homosexuality is 'an abomination') The Bible says if you work on Sundays, you should be stoned to death. Have you ever worked on a Sunday? I know I have.
6. (If it appears to come down to a repugnance to a same-sex couple having sex)
Are you saying that the intimate relationship you have with your spouse is on such shaky ground that another couple having sex in a different way is actually a threat to your relationship?
|
|
Personal accounts (Social Security)
|
Privatizing Social Security
Lakoff says "personal accounts" are mentioned in a manual for training conservatives as the way to reframe the issue of privatization.
|
|
Embryonic stem cell research
|
Stem cell research
The use of the word "embryonic" is intentional because it evokes the image of a baby. Stem cells can be used to create any kind of tissue in the body, but a stem cell is not the same thing as a baby.
|
|
The Clean Skies Act
|
The Leave No Tree Behind Act
|
|
Reform Social Security
|
Destroy Social Security
|
|
We went to war in Iraq so we'd be safer
|
Iraq is a recruiting station for terrorists
|
|
Iraq war is a war for freedom.
|
1. The Iraq war is un-Christian. Jesus was the Prince of Peace. The Bible doesn't say anything about the Prince of War.
|
|
Language used by conservatives
|
Reframes and reasoning
|
|
The country needs a strong leader, and George W. Bush is a strong leader.
|
Yes, we need a strong leader, and George W. Bush is a weak leader.
Bush has:
weakened us financially by creating record deficits that it will take decades to pay off
weakened us militarily by investing our armed forces in an unnecessary, unwise, and un-Christian war
weakened us internationally by offending our allies and nominating a bully to be our ambassador to the U.N.
weakened us morally by consistently refusing to ask the American people to make sacrifices. Following 9/11, when Americans were willing to follow his lead, he told them to go shopping for SUVs.
weakened us domestically by promoting division rather than unity through the appointment of extreme judicial nominees
weakened school districts across the country by forcing on them an unfunded mandate
weakened us technologically by refusing to fund stem cell research that would make us global leaders in this important new medical technology, with the recent result that important research was done in Korea instead
weakened us constitutionally by undermining the separation of church and state by granting government funds for faith-based initiatives
Add another way he's weakened us
 Bumper sticker available
|
|
"I'm a successful businessman, and I've done it on my own. Others can do the same, and if they don't, they're just not trying."
|
No businessperson has done it alone. Every business receives a tremendous amount of assistance from taxpayers. Tell me . . .
Did your business pay for your workers to be educated? Or did they attend any public schools paid for with taxpayer dollars?
Has your business ever borrowed money from a bank? If so, you've benefitted from federal banking institutions (the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the US Mint, etc.) that are funded with taxpayer dollars.
Do you, your employees, and your customers use roads, bridges, sidewalks to reach your place of business? If so, they were paid for with taxpayer dollars.
Does your business use the internet? If so, that was created with taxpayer dollars.
Do you and your employees and customers beneit from "wonder drugs"? If so, the pharmaceutical industry arose out of research and training done by the National Institutes of Health, which are funded by taxpayers.
Does your business issue stock? If so, you benefit from the existence of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is paid for by taxpayers. Without the SEC, your competitors could be cheating, and no one would be monitoring them.
Have you ever been sued by a customer or employee? If so, you've benefitted from a legal system in which you could protect yourself, and the legal system is paid for by taxpayers.
Does your business benefit from the existence of police and fire protection? They're paid for by taxpayers.
Does your business use the public airwaves to advertise your products or services? If so, they belong to the public, and you use them with the public's permission.
Send me another way a business has benefitted from taxes
|
|
Individual initiative is all you need.
|
That's great, and an individual can't afford to build a school, a highway, an airport, etc., so we need to build them together.
|
|
You can manage your money better than the government can.
|
1. If federal withholding weren't required, would you find it easy to pay your taxes in the spring?
2. The X thousand people who declare bankruptcy every year, did they manage their money well?
The X thousand people who are homeless, did they manage their money well?
3. If someone gave you $1000 today, would you use it to get yourself into a more stable financial position, or would you buy something?
|
|
Taking a "common sense" approach.
|
So you're suggesting we stop spending on education, is that right?
|
|
Liberals are elitists
|
Republicans would like to get rid of the minimum wage (?)
|
|
"Environmentalists"
|
1. Those fighting to save God's creation
2. Saving recreation areas for families to enjoy together
The word "environmentalist" has come to mean someone who wants to save a spotted owl at the cost of a worker's job. "The environment" sounds like it's outside of you. We need to reframe this to make it clear that the environment is the air inside your lungs, the food inside your body, etc. None of us could live without the environment.
|
|
Bloated big government
|
One reason for having a government is so we can afford to do things together that we can't afford to do alone, like build highways, bridges, airports, train stations, national parks, etc.
|
|
The wonders of the unfettered free market — just let it go, and everything will be fine.
|
Didn't Enron consider itself pretty unfettered by regulations, and MCI/Worldcom, and (what was the 3rd one?) Didn't an unfettered free market result in the crash of 1929?
|
|
Language used by conservatives
|
Reframes and reasoning
|
Ideas for shifting the belief, by appealing to things everybody wants
|
|
There are good people and bad people. Good people deserve to succeed, and bad people deserve to be punished.
|
I think if Jesus had compassion for everyone, including sinners, then I can try to do the same.
|
[We all want forgiveness when we screw up.] If I lost my way, I believe God would forgive me and help me back on the right road. In fact, I think that if Judas himself had asked Jesus for forgiveness, Jesus would have forgiven him. What's your belief?
|
|
Truth comes from outside us — from God, from the Bible, from strong leaders.
|
When someone's lying to you, can you tell? I think there's something inside us that tells us when somebody is lying. I think we know the truth when we see it, because it somehow feels true.
|
{We all want to be safe from people who are trying to trick us.] I think God is the only one with *all* the truth, and until I meet a human being who's as perfect as God, I'm going to reserve the right to determine for myself what's true and what isn't.
|
Available at Amazon.com
Available at Amazon.com
Available at WinWithLanguage.com