Because words matter.
Demi Moore, on having children:
Once you hit three, when you’re outnumbered, it’s really, like, what’s the difference between (three or) four or five?
Well, I guess if you’ve already got a vehicle that holds “3 to 5 children,” the exact numbers aren’t too significant. But maybe when couched in terms of ecological footprint, it matters […]
“Climate change could devastate the global economy…if left unchecked. Unless we act now … these consequences, disastrous as they are, will be irreversible.” And so the frame is established: Climate change is a phenomenon that is happening to humans and that needs to be fixed or stopped. We are passive victims in […]
It’s amazing to me to see the number of things that Come Under Fire these days. Policies, remarks, institutions, countries, people and so on. When someone or something is coming under fire and we read about it in the headlines, it’s strange that in many cases, the “target” is portrayed as having done […]
Democrats and Republicans both have recently been reinforcing the frame of “coddling terrorists” as the thing you do when you don’t support the Bush administration’s policies on warrantless wiretapping, rights of prisoners, and foreign relations in general. Dictionary definitions for “coddle” include: “to treat tenderly; nurse or tend indulgently; pamper,” and “to treat with extreme […]
