Tribal Word Meanings Ain’t The Same | By Louie Overstreet
April 5, 2023 by agutting@reviewjournal.com
Filed under Community
BY LOUIE OVERSTREET
Louie Overstreet
It is obvious that there are different calls-to-action when people — depending on tribal or political perspective — hear words like “big lie,” “social media,” “weaponizing,” “woke,” and the current bogeyman, “critical race theory.”
When different tribes have alternate definitions for words, then they can use their decoder rings to determine what mission to carry out. Sadly, in too many instances, the mission is to divide our nation along racial, gender, lifestyle, religious, and economic fault lines.
The immediate past president and his sycophants were free to tell the big lie about winning the 2020 presidential election, following a closely divided Supreme Court ruling that lying is protected speech under the First Amendment. To paraphrase the famous line from “When Harry Met Sally,” I will have what the justices are having.
Look no further than Fox (so called) News to gain a full appreciation of the damage that social media platforms can do to the American psyche. The media, in this case, are weaponizing events to produce the desired result of sowing division along the foregoing five fault lines of life in America.
My friend, Jean Max Dorsinville, is fond of sharing the quote on Facebook: “Some people use the word ‘woke’ as if it is supposed to be an insult!” I’m fine with the dictionary definition, “Aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially of racial and social justice.”)
However, without a doubt, Critical Race Theory (CRT) is America’s current bogeyman. Anytime a southern governor can weaponize CRT as a base for his poorly disguised intent to run for President, this is why, like the movie “The Music Man,” “Ya got trouble right here in River City (America).”
It is a shame we can’t accept and live with the fact it took an amalgamation of tribes from here and afar to make America the world leader. Also, it is sheer folly for us to have different interpretations for the same words; especially when our democracy is facing a clear and present danger from within.
