Increase Productivty

Loaded words (3)

Public affairs programmes on television are great fun for the connoisseur of loaded words. There is an unfortunate conflict of interests. They want to present material to make you share their prejudices; their authority requires at least some semblance of objectivity and balance. While blatant bias does occur, the satisfaction comes in spotting the loaded words at a slightly
more insidious level. Which side has ‘terrorists’, for example, and which has ‘freedom-fighters?’ Which countries have a government and which a regime?
When you are in the situation of trying to persuade people, you will find loaded words most useful. Your verbal picture shows the bleak outlook of one alternative, and contrasts it with the rosy setting which results from the other. Your listeners need never know that you could have done it just as easily the other way round.

Would you rather believe the careful words of an internationally respected columnist, or the incoherent ramblings of a well-known hack? Are you not moved by the just case which is even now being voiced by thousands of concerned demonstrators outside this very building? I’m not going to be taken in by the bleatings of a mob.

When describing actions, remember to load your words in such a way that even to observers who know nothing of the facts, there will be an obvious distinction between your prudent investments and the reckless spending of others, between the modest perquisites to which you were entitled and the wholesale embezzlement in which they have engaged. Your dispassionate
testimony should contrast well with their frenzied diatribe.

Taken from : How To Win EVery Argument