The Dark Art of Framing: How the authoritarian left manipulates with words and emotions

A new PragerU video highlights how we need to frame our arguments for the conservation of liberty.

Sometimes it is quite fascinating to witness certain spontaneous events taking place. In this circumstance, it is that many patriots of the pro-liberty right have begun singing the same tune in unison seemingly without a central directing influence. We submit that the ‘how’ in this situation isn’t as important as the ‘what’.

The past few weeks have seen many come to the same conclusion, that we conservators of liberty need to step up and begin pushing back on those who are actively working against this cause. That merely defending freedom isn’t sufficient, that we need to go on offence.

Framing the argument.

The PragerU we are presenting succinctly makes this point with a some suggestions on how we can structure our arguments to counteract the tactics of the left in pushing their socialist national agenda. This begins with determining how they frame their arguments.

Most often, leftist will choose certain words or phrases to invoke a specific emotional response. Unfortunately, this sets us of the pro-liberty right on defense if we accept these terms of debate. The key to going on offence is to frame the debate in terms of the conservation of liberty instead of it’s destruction.

Step 1: Determining the words incessantly exploited by the left

The first step in framing the argument in the defense of liberty is to assess how the left uses the language to push it’s false narratives. This begins with their self-labelling and extends to how they sell their socialistic slavery.

Most of the left’s false labeling tends to invoke the opposite of their true intent. The most obvious example is their use of the word ‘anti-fa’ which is short for anti-fascist. That they incessantly have the ideology of fascism and use its tactics should readily prove the point. They are anything but against fascism, but that label frames the debate perfectly for them.

Democratic

They’ve exploited the term ‘democratic’ for the name of their party, this stems from the Greek words dēmos ‘the people’ + –kratia ‘power, rule’. In point of fact, everything the left does pushes for rule by a small ‘intellectual’ elite. The exact opposite of the word.

Progressive

The same holds true for their use of the words ‘progressive’ and of course ‘liberal’. Their base ideology hearkens back to the ancient ideas of a collectivist ‘Utopia’, hardly a force for progress.

Liberal

While they may pretend at times to eschew the word, leftists love to be called ‘liberal’. As in the case of their other preferred self-labeling, they exploit the word liberal because of it’s close ties to the word liberty. In point of fact, the left base ideology is one set in slavery, so they have to avoid this implication. What better way than to try to convey the false impression they desire freedom and liberty.

Gun

This is the left’s favorite stand-in for the unalienable human right of self-defense. Human have rights, guns do not. That is why the left incessantly uses this term instead of one that shows this is an issue about freedom.

Let’s face it, some people consider guns to be scary looking objects of aluminium or steel [stainless for those of the highbrow set] that make loud noises and are admittedly dangerous if not treated with a healthy dose of respect. Leftists incessantly play off this fear, turning it up to eleven whenever they possibly can with any kind of ‘gun violence’ tragedy that takes place.

Leftists also love to exploit undefined terms.

It is also a fact that the national socialist left loves to use undefined terms that have maximum emotional impact. This has two major benefits in that they can exploit these words to go after whatever they want and it convey more of an emotional rather than factual argument.

Facts are never the left’s strong suit, their base ideology contravenes reality, making it difficult for them to foment a logical argument.

Assault weapon

This is one of the left’s first use of an emotionally laden term that has no real meaning. The Merriam-Webster definition of the term, even uses the phrase ‘assault with a deadly weapon’. It perfectly highlights why they use such terms – it can mean anything so an ‘assault weapon’ ban can be used to take out every kind of weapon imaginable.

Military style

The same holds true for the term ‘Military style’ or the latest iteration in leftist deception ‘weapons of war’. These are even more egregious examples in that they convey even less information with a higher emotional content.

Hate speech

There is no set definition for this term while at the same time it has the same emotional impact of the false phrase ‘assault weapon’. In essence, this emotionally laden term means speech that meets disagreement from the authoritarian socialist left.

Violence

While this has a set definition, it is like the other in being somewhat vague while having an emotional impact. Especially coupled with the term ‘gun’, the point being to demonize a set of inanimate objects that are a bulwark of liberty.

Thus the left uses the term ‘gun violence’ as a catch-all to condemn the unalienable human right of self-preservation. It can be exploited to exaggerate the danger of guns in our society while scrupulously avoiding the issue of liberty in the discussion.

Step 2: Stop using the words preferred by the left

No one should ever follow the advice of an enemy. More than likely this so obvious to that tacticians of the past never felt that it needed to be said. However, it seems like it does need to be stated in the clearest terms possible.

Refusing to fulfill enemy desires also applies to language; if the left wants to be labelled as liberal or progressive, it should be stunningly obvious why this is the case: because these labels convey a positive and false impression.

The authoritarians clearly have no use for liberty or progress or democracy, but we unwittingly convey this incredibly false impression when we use their preferred labels.

Authoritarian leftists love to be called liberals, progressives and Democrats, yet they are none of these laudable labels. Instead of being liberators, advocating progress and defending democracy, they work to destroy liberty, want society to go backwards and would prefer to have an intellectual elite run the show.

Step 3: Use liberty oriented words against the authoritarian socialist left

The obvious rule of thumb is to avoid using the deceptive language of the left. This means using one or two words for the left instead of the nonsensical word salad approach that praises them as in favor of progress one minute and champions of liberty the next.

There are times when it seems like many on our side of the political aisle fail to understand the vital importance of using the correct word or phrase. They don’t understand that using these words frames the conservation of liberty in terms that are incredibly favorable to the national socialist left.

It should be obvious that the nation’s authoritarian socialist left has but one priority and that is control over everyone else. They want to be able to decree what we can say or whether we can defend ourselves. They want to control our property and meter out how it is used.

Properly framing the argument means using authoritarian, leftist, or socialist, instead of Democratic, progressive or liberal. The focus should be on their true nature instead of the false narrative they wish to foment.

Similarly, all deceptive words surrounding the issue of liberty should refer to this instead of inanimate objects or undefined emotionally laden phrases. It needs to be called liberty control instead of gun control because freedom is on the chopping block. We need to use terms such as the modern day musket instead vague and hysterical phrases that can mean anything the authoritarian left wants them to mean.

The Bottom-Line: They are the nation’s authoritarian socialist left.

The only way the left can win is by deceiving everyone about their true nature until it’s too late. Unfortunately, we are seeing a version of this taking place in the state of Virginia where they used the Joy Behar approach in maintaining the deception until after election day.

Authoritarian leftists love to be called liberals, progressives and democrats. They are none of these things. It’s time to frame the argument and deprive them of these plaudits.

Originally published on the NOQ Report