Wherefore Art Thou, Iraq?
Iraq is not associated with the terrorists who attacked us, but the right has done a great job of convincing people otherwise.
Countering their claims with "Nuh-uh, no they didn't," is completely ineffective. You've got to break the false "Iraq = Al Qaida-terrorists" frame.
So how do you counter them? They've so tightly bound "Iraq," "Al Qaida," and "terrorists" in people's minds that if you say one of those words, people automatically picture the others.
Here's an idea: stop using those words. Replace them with the truth:
What would this look like in use?
Instead of "When I'm president, we will win the war on terror," it's "When I'm president, we will win the war on those who attacked us."
Instead of "I'll get our brave young men and women out of Iraq," it's "I'll get our brave young men and women out of a country that posed no threat and wasn't about to become one."
The best way to counter a frame is to stop using the words that activate it. Due to a spectacularly well-executed "Big Lie" strategy of constant repetition, the right has succeeded in turning Iraq, Al Qaida, Terror into activators for one another. Break the frame - use different terminology.
Countering their claims with "Nuh-uh, no they didn't," is completely ineffective. You've got to break the false "Iraq = Al Qaida-terrorists" frame.
So how do you counter them? They've so tightly bound "Iraq," "Al Qaida," and "terrorists" in people's minds that if you say one of those words, people automatically picture the others.
Here's an idea: stop using those words. Replace them with the truth:
Al Qaida and terrorists become "The people who attacked us."
Iraq becomes "A country that was not a threat and wasn't about to become one."
What would this look like in use?
Instead of "When I'm president, we will win the war on terror," it's "When I'm president, we will win the war on those who attacked us."
Instead of "I'll get our brave young men and women out of Iraq," it's "I'll get our brave young men and women out of a country that posed no threat and wasn't about to become one."
The best way to counter a frame is to stop using the words that activate it. Due to a spectacularly well-executed "Big Lie" strategy of constant repetition, the right has succeeded in turning Iraq, Al Qaida, Terror into activators for one another. Break the frame - use different terminology.
posted by rhetoretician at 2:38 AM
2 Comments:
And that truth being people like me (the right),do not care if any link ever existed between Iraq and the terrorists who attacked us.If Bush came out tomorrow and said "you know i told all these lies just to get my foot in the door to whip Saddam's ass,it's all been a smoke screen."People like me would be like," oh well" as you still cling to your no blood for oil slogans-fuel is more costly now than at the beginning
of the war.Or maybe you'll go for the bleeding heart liberal rant "but look at all the lives we've lost,over a thousand-and i'll remind you it was not for oil or a power trip,but the uncovering of massgraves,the ending of torture(i have footage,iraqi football team,etc.)So before you get on your intellectual blogging high horse thinking that your privey to the truth,remember...we know (conservatives,"the right") that Fox News is Bias,that Bill O'reilly is obnoxious,and that George w. Bush is possibly the worst public speaker ever to be President,but actions speak louder than words and when he's reelected i hope he turns everyone of their "Holy" Mosques into parking lots.
I've gone along all innocent thinking that George W's right-wing supporters have been beguiled and misled. Well, here's 'Anonymous', saying flat out that they *know* Faux lies, *know* the reasons for going into Iraq were lies... this is not beguilement or deceivedness, this is willful, knowing support of deeds of unkindness and destruction.
'Anonymous' claims to care about Saddam's mass graves-- well what about the mass grave of our very own American soldiers? Not to mention the several dozen thousand Iraqis we've killed in the process of "liberating" them. Is our Iraqi death toll not appropaching that of Saddam? And since the Iraqis are so "free", why don't we allow them to get contracts to rebuild their own country, why don't we allow them to get jobs as drivers for Halliburton? We aren't liberating them-- we are sucking their country dry, and they d*mned well know it. And I haven't even gone into the mass graves of Kosovo, Sudan, Tibet, etc etc which 'Anonymous' and their right-wing friends don't give a d**n about, because there is neither oil nor a pseudo-Raptural "timeline" cobbled together from 14 disparate verses of the Bible, involved.
"i hope he turns everyone of their "Holy" Mosques into parking lots." Well, to relieve your ignorance a little bit, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all draw their roots from the Old Testament, incorporate it into their holy books in fact, and in the case of Islam, incorporate the New as well. Jesus' story is written in the Koran just as it is written in Matthew or Luke, and Jesus is revered in the Koran as one of the saints-- along with Moses and Abraham. Those "holy Mosques" are a lot more like your churches than you'd care to admit, 'Anonymous'. But, like Christianity, many of Islam's practitioners have twisted it around and exploited its name to justify slavery of women, slavery in general, mass murder and conquest, and so we have sharia and 9/11... as well as 'residence schools' for Native Americans not to mention the extermination of the entire original population of the Caribbean.
Jesus made a number of things very clear. One, he said, "Get a good tree and its fruit will be good; get a bad tree and its fruit will be bad. You can tell a tree by its fruit."
"If you love only those who love you, what reward can you expect? Even the tax-collectors do as much as that. If you greet only your brothers, what is there extraordinary about that? Even the heathen do as much."
"When I was hungry, you gave me food; when thirsty, you gave me drink; when I was a stranger, you took me into your home; when naked, you clothed me; when I was ill, you came to my help; when in prison, you visited me... anything you did for one of my brothers here, however insignificant, you did for me."
"Wide is the gate and broad the road that leads to destruction, and many enter that way; narrow is the gate and constricted the road that leads to life, and those who find them are few."
Someone may prattle on at length about what a good and superior Christian they are, but "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of my heavenly Father. When the day comes, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Out of my sight; your deeds are evil!'"
So will you rocket down the broad road in your SUV at full throttle, casting calumnies at those who advocate love, gentleness, and mercy towards their fellow humans, and calling for the houses of other people's faiths to be turned into parking lots? What, I ask you, kind of fruit is this indeed?
-- Tiamat
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