There are “aspects of our present political and cultural reality that underline the need for a prominent, persistent, and intellectually honest airing of our linguistic dirty laundry,” writes Brent Cummingham in this article, “The Rhetoric Beat.” He argues we need more public discussion of the language that frames our national discussions and savvy rhetoricians to parse apart the dominant discourse on such topics as war, climate change, and education. People must become more “aware of how the seemingly benign words and phrases they encounter daily are often finely calibrated to influence how they think about ideas.”
He says the best chance we have for this to happen is the major media outlets. Bah. I don’t see FOX news establishing a “De-Spin Rhetoric Zone” anytime soon.
The best chance we have for this are all the dedicated folk driving a project like Harlot.
(Also, why limit ourselves to just our “linguistic” dirty laundry?)