General

Word Bleg II: Eclectic Boogaloo

Gimme a break, it’s Friday. Anyway, my friend Chris Macdonald wants your input on the following:

What words reliably signal that an author is not offering a neutral analysis or assessment of an issue? The first such word that comes to my mind is “agenda.” If you refer to one side’s view as an “agenda”, you’re almost certainly an ideologue.  There are lots of merely loaded terms & dysphemisms, of course, but the ones I’m interested in are ones that can be used by nearly anyone (i.e., words that aren’t intrinsically right-wing or left-wing, etc.).

I can think of a few obvious ones, like referring to someone’s plan as a “scheme”. But the trick here is to go beyond obviously loaded language and find terms that appear neutral, but frame the analysis in a way the subtly pushes you in a certain direction.

Is this the same exercise as last time?

Looking for more?

Get the Best of Maclean's sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for news, commentary and analysis.
  • By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
FILED UNDER: