When language comes from certain groups – notably politicians, clergy, or marketers – we should be aware of how often it does not refer to anything in the real world and be sensitive to attempts to tell us what’s true or otherwise manipulate us.
The truth is what most people believe. And they believe that which is repeated most often
Josef Goebbels
Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
From mind to thought (and from there to the speech and auditory organs) .
‘Why can’t human beings live simply and naturally?’ The trouble is that, as Susan K. Langer has said, ‘The symbol-making function is one of man’s primary activities. . .It is the fundamental process of the mind, and it goes on all the time.’
S.I. Hayakawa, Language in Thought and Action
If you are on a continuous search to be offended, you will always find what you are looking for, even if it isn’t there.