Yesterday, I was screaming at the TV when Tweety said at least Santorum is consistent on his "pro-life" policy. Today, I look at the community spotlight, and I see this otherwise excellent diary with the headline, "If you do the crime, pay the time" A Pro-life View of Abortion."
Words have meanings. Look how the republicans have reshaped political reality; tax relief, death tax, earmarks, gay marriage. They can do this because the mainstream media is lazy, and it will accept the simplest framing of any issue just to make it comprehensible for the lowest common denominator viewer.
We shouldn't just accept their framing for things. Here's George Lakoff, at Huffpo last December, deconstructing Frank Luntz on the words not to use when you describe the Occupy movement:
Luntz is not just addressing his remarks to Republicans. He is also looking to take Democrats for suckers. How? By choosing his frames carefully, and getting Democrats to do the opposite of what he tells Republicans. There is a basic truth about framing. If you accept the other guy's frame, you lose.
We've been losing on this issue for decades. As one of the comments below says, "The term "pro-life" gives the pro-criminalization crowd a linguistic high ground that they don't deserve." You may understand "pro life" to mean anti-choice or anti-abortion, but the symbolism is terrible. Tell me, are you all pro-Death? I know you aren't. WHY DO WE INSIST ON USING THEIR TERM FOR THEIR POSITION? "Pro-life" ends at birth, as I see it.
"Anti-Choice" or "Anti-Abortion," please. And while you're at it, "Marriage Equality."
8:48 AM PT: Thanks for the republication! I'm going to run some errands now and have lunch while I'm out (Pacific time zone), and I'll be gone for about 6 hours. Play nicely, and try not to engage the diary hijackers.
6:08 PM PT: Thanks, almost all of you, for making this an animated and civil discussion. I'm going to let it run its course without me now, since I have some course prep to do for my weekend college courses, and I won't be around for most of the weekend.