We were driving through Houston the other day and got stopped at the corner. There was an upstanding group of citizens waving placards and protesting. They started to chant: “Stop the coup! Stop the coup!”
This is not about that. There are serious issues in the nation, but this is not about those either.I am not minimizing their wrath which may be, for all I know, perfectly justified. There was not time to find out at that corner sitting at a stoplight much more than being urged to stop whoever should be stopped. This is about the fact that nobody in our car had the slightest idea what side the protesters represented. The language of both sides in our present politics has become so similar that we could not tell whose campaign had drawn their wrath.
Whatever else is true, and many other, even more important things are true, the fact that so much of all our language has become so similar, yet so angry, is distressing. Even as I thought this, as we pulled away from the corner, I realized that knowing sides should not change this particular concern. To discuss an issue, to rationally determine who is right and wrong, we need a common vocabulary where words have a particular meaning.
There is a danger that every word that is “negative” becomes a “devil word” that we simply use to describe whatever the other side is doing. Consider a word like “coup.” What is a “coup” and how can a person execute one? What would this look like? Just anything we do not like that a politician can do to keep power is not a “coup.” For example, it would be bad to lie about one’s opponent or about the election date to prevent voting. This would be wrong, but not a coup. Not every wrong a politician or government leader could do, no matter how serious, is a coup.
We cannot talk to each other, or even avoid horrible situations like a coup, if we do not know just what we are saying.
Similarly, I see people saying things that are false, but they are not lying. They may be unintentionally spreading false information, and if so they should stop, but a “lie” implies intention.* All of us should do all we can to avoid spreading wrong information. This is an important responsibility and when we do not do so, we should apologize and retract. Nobody is helped when we call this particular failure a “lie.” In fact, this can inflame the situation and prevent a coherent discussion of the reason things have gone wrong.
This is hard to do, especially when the problems are so great. We are tempted, or at least I am tempted, to fling the toughest word that comes to mind. If the other side accuses my side of something, then it can seem clever just to accuse them of the same thing. When everything just means “you are bad” or “you are on the bad team,” then rational dialogue, winning over people in our Republic will get very hard.
There are serious issues afoot, issues of injustice citizens must oppose and protest. As we do so, we should be careful to say as clearly, charitably, and forcefully what we think will bring peace and justice to this Republic.
*A person does have a responsibility to check sources, to try to verify what they say, but this can be confusing right now. Reasonable people can be confused when seeming authorities contradict each other on important issues.
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