The leftism is trash metaphor also allows the Right to more effectively combat what flows from the Left’s conservatives are evil mindset. It’s hard to take a bunch of naïve fools seriously as a threat. Vandals destroying your home, on the other hand? That’s something people will fight with all their hearts against, and it’s something that would result naturally from a leftism is trash conceptual metaphor.
Moreover, the trash metaphor would keep the Right focused on repairing and improving. This is in contrast to the Left’s metaphor which makes its acolytes focused simply on hurting us, ignoring the collateral damage their efforts have on society and themselves (as recently demonstrated by Harvard faculty who supported Obamacare, and are now suffering under it).
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Aside from thinking the metaphor too harsh, some readers may wonder if all this talk about conceptual metaphor is a bit too out-there. If you do, consider that George Lakoff (one of the researchers mentioned above) has written about the use of metaphor in politics, focusing on how the Left can use it to its advantage. If the other side cares about metaphor, we should as well.
Additionally, we know the power of metaphor in framing retail politics. A given welfare program is likely to get broad support if sold to the public as “an investment.” The same welfare program will not garner much support if we are using a less charitable but no doubt more accurate metaphor such as “pissing money down a hole.” How much more powerful the metaphors that control how and whether we fight?
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We have to believe that leftism is debris that can be removed, that it deserves to be removed, that the Left’s gains are only as permanent as litter that simply needs to be picked up, that the damage it has done can be repaired for something better to again stand in its place, and that far from uselessly shouting “stop” we can win. Only then will our actions change, only then will we fight with the intensity of men that have hope of victory.
A new conceptual metaphor is the means by which we can do this.
Please read the entire article. I’ve just hit the high points.
” Dysfunctional government and divided society being leftism’s legacy”
And over the past 20 years, a Republican legacy, as most conservatives have been purged from the GOP in D.C.
Somebody needs to start the meme rolling. Who would you propose? And how do you propose to gain traction when all communication outlets, including Fox News, do not exactly have our best interests at heart?
bkmk