The Media and Labels

in #politics6 years ago

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The psychological effects of labelling on our perception is something we tend to underestimate. Be it race, color, political views or any other focus, simply labelling using whole labels to describe something unique or distinct is very wrong. We humans tend to put labels to things in other to simplify them, especially if they are complicated to begin with.

What labels do is that they tend to generalize and aggregate symptoms as part of wholes and push a general perception around anything we attach to it. How does this concern the media? The use of labels as a political weapon may be an emerging tactic but it is something that has already proven itself effective enough in swaying opinions.

The mainstream media uses labels by aggregating lump sums of political opinions under a general term. Opinions that should hitherto be considered on an individual basis are given generalized perceptions around them. For instance those with less popular views on government control, abortion, immigration amongst others are (in my opinion) increasingly being associated with labels such as ‘hardline’, ‘extreme’, ‘bigot’, ‘intolerant’… Even new words have been invented such as ‘islamaphobia' to brashly describe anyone who voices concern about how Islam is often associated with violence. This is wrong because not only are individual opinions different on a matter, simply attaching a label to a person’s political opinion destroys their voice and any chance of being heard.

Unfortunately, the media is not oblivious of this fact. One interesting use of labels that I think they have successfully made use of – is the race and gender card. The Republican Party for instance is increasingly associated with being a ‘white evangelical male dominated’ environment. It certainly worked during the Alabama Senatorial as a lot of Women came out to hand Jones the victory. I think such labels influence perception more than we know, and it is no surprise that a lot of non Caucasians do not associate with the party. I have actually seen Ben Carson receive flack on twitter on twitter for being a Republican.

The Label wars are still in the early days, but without a significant move to denounce a lot of labels thrown around by the mainstream, the war may be lost before it begins.

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My generation seems to take labels to a whole other level that causes them to lose their identity in the lies of label instead of define it in truth.

Curated for #informationwar (by @openparadigm)
Relevance: Labels used to delegitimize someone before you even hear their arguments.
Our Purpose

The underlying issue is control of language. Labeling, naming, categorizing simply is the action of ideation, and you cannot think logically without doing that first. He who controls speech controls thought, and he who controls thought controls action and thus the world. There's an Orwell quote to this effect. The control of language to which @empress-eremmy calls attention is the perversion of language by the post-modernist, totalitarian gambit to gain control over society by deconstructing and dismantling it.

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