Lakoff’s Shell Game

3:04 pm EST October 27th, 2006 | Democrats | 5 Comments

I ain’t some kind of fancy-pants linguistics professor, but I know I’m not the only one who reads this editorial from George Lakoff and smells something fishy.

He tries to explain the way “stay the course” backfired.

In the context of a metaphorical war against evil, “stay the course” evoked all these emotion-laden metaphors. The phrase enabled the president to act the way he’d been acting — and to demonstrate that it was his strong character that enabled him to stay on the moral path.

Who the heck thinks like this? It’s like the fake James Carville said in an SNL sketch: “Now, you beat George Bush in a talkin’ contest, that’s like Wilt Chamberlain playing basketball against Stephen Hawking and beatin’ him by two points! The man can’t talk, John!”.

Why does the left always have to take the most basic things in the world and make ‘em complex? “Stay the course” says we’re stickin’ around in Iraq doing the same crap we’ve been doing. Everyone thinks thats a dumbass thing to do.

Wow, I’m a genius, gimme money.

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5 Responses to “Lakoff’s Shell Game”

  1. Mike says:
    October 27, 2006 at 3:32 pm

    “Why does the left always have to take the most basic things in the world and make ‘em complex? “Stay the course” says we’re stickin’ around in Iraq doing the same crap we’ve been doing. Everyone thinks thats a dumbass thing to do.”
    —————————
    Lighten up, man. That’s what he’s saying. But he’s a professor of linguistics, for god’s sake, and he is writing it from a professorial perspective.

    While I don’t always agree with everything Lakoff says, and at times he can seem to get overly analytical for my taste, he does offer an interesting perspective for those who wish to look at the impact of linguistics and framing of issues. There are plenty of people saying exactly what you are saying in the plain spoken, down to earth way we all appreciate. Just don’t expect it from all the college professors.

  2. Elayne Riggs says:
    October 27, 2006 at 3:36 pm

    It’s not a matter of “thinking like this.” It’s a matter of hyper-analyzing every little word or phrase. You know, like many blogs do. It’s intellectual masturbation. Lakoff would be right at home on many liberal (and perhaps a few conservative) blogs.

  3. Mike says:
    October 27, 2006 at 4:02 pm

    Yes, there is no doubt that Lakoff does hyper-analyze and there probably are people who would consider a lot of it nothing but intellectual mumbo-jumbo. But his macro-view that language matters is an important point and that can often get lost in the his analytical linguistic style.

    I still find a lot of his points interesting.

    And, yes, there are an infinite number of examples in the blogosphere of hyper-analyzing irrelevant minutiae. Certainly something for everybody.

  4. Wellstone says:
    October 27, 2006 at 4:58 pm

    You ain’t that stupid, dog.

    I own Dr. Lakoff’s “Moral Politics” masterpiece, and am grateful he is on our side helping us to work through the stinking filthy swamp that is the modern Conservative-Republican mindset.

    You have to understand that people like Rove, Luntz and before him, the ratfucker himself, Rove’s mentor Lee Atwater, have worked hard on message crafting with Conservative thinktanks for four generations.

    The GOP’s daily talking points blast in the age of Bush is legendary, and enables FOX, Rush, Sean, and the rest of the Con Media machine game the media and distort events daily.

    Message is CRAFTED, Ollie, CRAFTED.

    You think “Stay the Course” is something the Bushistas thought up by themselves? It was a catchphrase that was focus-group tested, polled, and polished to a hard gleam before Bush ever said it.

    Lakoff sheds light, and helps us to understand Con lizard minds.

    For that he has my gratitude, because we will never defeat them decisively until we understand how they think. God help us.

  5. Oliver says:
    October 27, 2006 at 5:16 pm

    Lakoff is a snake-oil salesman. Yeah, there are motivations and stuff behind words but it ain’t the brilliant strategery folks keep selling it as. Also, Lakoff’s recommendations for Democrats are HORRIBLE.