‘Poe-Tate-Toe’, ‘Pah-Tot-Toe’ or How To Confuse Americans with Words

Having been raised with English as a First Language (EFL), I have been and probably will continue to be at a distinct disadvantage in understanding why and what Americans understand about anything. This is nowhere more evident than with respect to politics and political issues. So I am asking for your indulgence and request that you will excuse me if I am a little confused about the confusion of other Americans’ comprehension of various issues. You will just have to rack this up to my EFL limitations; and thus please grant me the benefit of the doubt, if I have misunderstood your point. Also, please forgive me if I am about to insult you, should you feel that my comments about the levels of ignorance that are being exhibited on various issues of the day are applicable to or targeted at you.

For those of you unfortunate enough to have experienced a significant number of political or social issues, and are thus mature individuals (old fogies), you have had the opportunity to have lived through a number of significant issues of the day. When you look back on those days and issues; does it seem that people were as completely disoriented, misinformed, unaware, or need we say: stupid as they appear to be about today’s issues?

My first impulse is to decide that yes, today people are even more stupid than people have been in the past. But, if I give myself a little time for reflection and recollection, I suspect that this is mostly the recurring evaluation that mature individuals seem to predictably have with regard to subsequent generations. I remember the remarkable insight on “current society” oft attributed to Socrates by Plato or less frequently to Hesiod (8th Century BC) to the effect: “What’s the matter with kids today, they’re disrespectfully, disobey laws, frivolous, they have a deplorable mode of dress, and exhibit all manner of bad behaviors”. So in retrospect, with this wisdom in mind, I admit that citizenry of today are no more or less intellectually disadvantaged than they have ever been.

For those of you paying attention, you have undoubtedly noted that I have not implied that our American citizenry are at an acceptable or desirable level of intellectual ability or well informed state.

But so as not to mislead you by an act of omission, I don’t just attribute the paucity of intellect, knowledge and understanding to the citizenry of following generations alone. I am absolutely convinced that my own generation and the still surviving member of previous generations are equally as stupid and insipid as any other.

Now finally to the topical point I intended to discuss. The Associated Press released an article today about the impact that the different wordings of questions had in a poll which they conducted on Health Care Reform. Now it has long been known and understood by psychologists, linguist, political strategist, statisticians, lawyers (well some of them), physicians, news editors/reporters, and let’s face it a whole lot of people that people answer questions differently depending on how the question is phrased. So we can now all be amazed and surprised that people polled with differently phrased questions about the Health Care Reform bill give different answers depending on the way the questions was asked.

This differential response to the wordings of questions reveals a facet of confusion in Americans’ understanding of the true/actual issues about which their positions and decisions should be being made. In the context of Health Care Reform, our societal need is to accurately understand the true facts about the issues that will matter and affect us. These issues include the true costs of the plan to both ourselves and to others in the society, the reality and implications of having or not having ‘governmental control/decisions on care’, or whether the system will be truly national or whether states could opt in/out.

Here is where our politicians, our political parties, our news and media sources, and our public and private institutions fail to provide or deliver fair, honest, unbiased, and useful analysis and assessments of the proposed plan or the issues. We have come to expect and accept that our political leaders and their talking heads are lying to us. Well, not ours but surely the other side’s people. And it is true, they are lying to you; except it’s not the other side, it’s both sides. It’s this assurance that if it’s a Democrat, a Republican, or some other third-party affiliate telling you something, that you can be positive that you are being lied to. Fortunately for the politicians, Lincoln was right: “You can fool some of the people, all of the time.” And it’s not totally the fault of the politicians, though they are insatiable in their capacity to say anything that they believe will frighten you away from even thinking about or evaluating what the other side is saying. The fault is that Americans don’t think about what they are hearing, they don’t question the people that they consider on ‘their’ side, and they don’t seem to understand that there are not two or more different sets of facts about an issue.

So here is how you confuse Americans with words. You consider what will either frighten or will anger them; and you then find some words and phrases that will evoke that fear or anger, or both. Then craft your message and speeches and answers to include those words and phrases. It’s also quite effective to ask questions to groups that are keyed to those same fears and hot points. You have all seen or heard politicians doing this, as if they are incapable of telling you anything before they have confirmed that you are already supporting the positions they are getting ready to tell you that you should be concerned, angry, or upset about. If you hear questions like: “Do you want the Government involved in your ____?”, or “Are you already over [taxed / regulated / … ] by the Government?”, or “Do you want your right to/freedom to ___ taken away from you?”.

Then all anyone has to do is state that the issue that they are supporting or opposing will cause what you like or dislike to happen. Fortunately for the politicians and their ilk, the news media is either directly involved in supporting a particular view, or there are no particularly competent people in the media that can figure out that the politicians are full of crap. Nor can the media’s professionals apparently provide a critical assessment of the issue, the facts and report upon and illuminate the disgraceful disparity between the facts and positions that the politicians and partisans present and the reality that pertain to the issues and the public interests.

You confuse Americans with words by just telling them what you know they want to hear and what you want them to believe. This way we can continue to have an America where the citizens are separated from each other by lies, misinformation, hatred, and well stupidity.