When you write a check to the IRS, is that charity? According to UK-based philosopher Alain de Botton, that’s what we should call taxes, because the word “tax” is “colorless, odorless and offensive.” Yes, he’s really serious.
Modern political language seems to be intended to conceal the truth rather than make facts clear. It’s no wonder that nobody can agree about what’s going on when almost everybody is busy redefining words to mean what he wants them to mean — in order to make a point.
For instance, in normal conversation, if you say that someone’s budget has been cut, those words have a specific meaning. The money in the budget is something less than it was before. In politics, though, it can mean something altogether different. A “budget cut” might mean that a budget went up — not down — but that the rate of increase wasn’t as much as had been previously planned.
This language is dishonest, and its intent is to conceal the fact that real overall budgets are almost never cut. Politicians can claim to have cut budgets, even though spending still goes up.
Is ‘majority rule’ moral even when the majority don’t want freedom?
No, I can’t support your campaign; changing candidates won’t fix things
Reconciliation can start with the courage to make one phone call
I’m shutting the whole world out, but I’m also waiting to be rescued
To heal from narcissistic abuse, you have to stop hurting yourself
Visit from his dead parents shook father’s disbelief in supernatural
Life is like flying a plane as you assemble it from a box of parts
My pride and insecurity make it difficult for me to live in humility
Does the delusion that most people agree with us explain the appeal of majoritarian systems?
