Language con job
TO THE EDITOR: In America Incorporated, the Powers That Be stay in power by either scaring us or confusing us.
With Citizens United, it is the latter. Here's how it works. Pay attention. All you have to do is bring a case before the Supreme Court about the First Amendment right of a documentary filmmaker to call his full-length film, slamming then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, a legitimate political ad and, presto, the Supremes recklessly distort their majority opinion to claim that corporations are people and that money equals speech. Duh!? Even George Orwell, on his best day, could not have imagined this.
In the past, I've written letters to this paper about how corrupt language can corrupt thought. During the Reagan Era, "Star Wars," a media coining of the president's looney idea that we could shoot down missiles before they hit, convinced many Americans that, with pure old-fashioned American ingenuity, we could build a defense that could stop anything thrown at us. Then came 9/11 and the box cutters. Anyway, "Star Wars" was a pipe dream then, and it still is. But it made Americans feel safe, even if they weren't.
Another language con job is Citizens United. What a wonderful joining of words. What a utopian idea! Just hearing it makes one feel warm and cuddly. It's supposed to.
But a more accurate phrase for the Supreme's con job would be "Corporate People" or "Money Speech." Orwell kicks in here. He warns us that corrupting the language will also corrupt thought.
For the Supreme Court, Citizens United is the perfect cover for a very, very dirty deed.
Mike Kulik
Plattsburgh
