The problem with living in a perpetual state of crisis is that in it takes more and more effort to get people outraged. Witness the attempt by the left (and the occasional member of the MSM) to convince America that outspoken conservative member of Congress Michelle Bachmann is calling for insurrection because she used the phrase “armed and dangerous”.
Of course, when you read what she actually said, it’s blindingly obvious that she was using an extended metaphor. William Jacobson went hunting around the internet and found a bunch of examples where people used the selfsame phrase in similar circumstances without raising so much as half an eyebrow.
The difference today is that the left desperately needs to turn America’s attention away from the clueless and destructive governance of the Democratic majority. Michelle Bachmann is as good a target as any right now and if it means that they have to purposefully misconstrue what she said, well, it’s not like it’s the first time they’ve done that to someone. Progressives are old hands at playing silly word games. Ask Rush Limbaugh.
Jacobson says “context and truth have no place” and he’s right. Your right to have the plain meaning of your words taken as you intended is crucial to the notion of free and open debate. It’s worth asking yourself which ideological side seems more interested in taking that away from you.
Tags: Language, Michelle Bachmann, Progressives, William Jacobson
