How Health Officials Weaponize Language to Manage Public Perception of COVID Vaccines

[Pattypans]

A Tool of Control: How Health Officials Weaponize Language to Manage Public Perception of COVID Vaccines
Children's Health Defense Team 08/26/21

The deployment of clever linguistic tricks has created a hostile upside-down universe, where even the vaccine-injured are tarnished as “anti-vaxxers” or liars rather than acknowledged as ex-vaxxers who took risks that turned out to be life-changing.

Psychological and linguistic manipulation are, for those in power, proven tools for building, consolidating and maintaining dominance — a reality keenly depicted in George Orwell’s never-more-relevant novel, 1984.

As phrased by master propagandist Edward Bernays, an approximate contemporary of Orwell’s, the mind of the people “is made up for it by the group leaders in whom it believes and by those persons who understand the manipulation of public opinion.”

Read more: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/d...ovid-vaccines/

[Islander]

I can't agree with his thesis; I think he's a bit too defensive, seeing threats where none occur. One area where I do agree with him, however, is in the use of the term "lockdown." Nothing is being locked. No one is imprisoned. People are simply quarantining, as they have always done in the face of pandemics, epidemics or the occurrence of any easily transmissible disease. We will get through this a lot sooner if everyone behaved like adults and acted for the good of all.

[Pattypans]

I beg to differ with this statement:

People are simply quarantining, as they have always done in the face of pandemics, epidemics or the occurrence of any easily transmissible disease.

1. It has either never, or almost never, historically been the case that healthy people were quarantined. The sick person, and someone to care for him or her (and sometimes the rest of their household) were quarantined. Healthy people continued going about their daily lives.

2. To say 'people are quarantining' makes it sound as if they're doing so voluntarily. But the 'lockdowns' were government-mandated. There's a big difference. As brought out in the article, how we use words makes a huge difference in perception.

It's inaccurate to say that nothing was locked down. What about the thousands of businesses that were ordered to shut down for long periods of time (while others, such as big-box stores, were permitted to stay open)?

The point about language being weaponized is, in my opinion, true, and highly relevant in many areas of life today, not only COVID. If you think weaponize is too strong a word, we could say 'manipulated' and disingenuously reinvented for the purpose of changing the thinking and behavior of 'the masses' to conform to the goals of those in power. It's still insidious.

If we fail to see the signs of the gradual erosion of individual freedoms in the name of 'the greater good' (which in many ways was not served or furthered, but set back by the lockdowns and other COVID measures), I fear we will become like the frogs tossed into the pot of cool water which was, unnoticed by the frogs, gradually being brought to a boil.

[Islander]

Pattypans, overall I agree with you; I just don't feel that our freedoms are being eroded in any way.

1. You are right, I was speaking broadly. I'm not a history major, but I do remember that in the days when infectious diseases were abroad, sick people were quarantined, and notices were posted on their doors to that effect. Healthy people were free to mingle.

2. Yes, the 'lockdowns' were government-mandated. Infected people in a population are carrying a contagion. Someone has to be in charge to limit its spread. Who else but mayors, governors, or health and disease agencies like the CDC?

Similarly, decisions have to be made as to where it is safe/unsafe for people to gather in groups, and those in leadership positions must make such decisions. Personally, I had no problem waiting for my turn in the supermarkets that permitted only X number of customers at a time in order to avoid crowding, nor did I see a problem with leaving so-called big-box stores open for those who needed supplies not available in food stores. The same strategy was at work of limiting the number of customers in the building at any given moment. Advice to wear masks and observe social distances has clearly been effective in those states where such procedures have been observed.

So yes, language is a tool of influence and persuasion, depending on the intentions of the speaker. At this moment, although I despair of the divisions in my country, I don't feel my "freedoms" are at any risk.

[Julieanne]

" never historically been the case that healthy people were quarantined."

I read Year of Wonders some time ago. It is based on a true story, where a village isolates sick and healthy people to avoid spreading the plague. Fascinating book

From The New Yorker

In 1665, the intense young pastor of a plague-stricken Derbyshire village persuades his parish to quarantine itself from the outside world. This selfless decision leads to the deaths of two-thirds of the inhabitants but saves the surrounding towns, as it did in the case of the historical village that inspired the tale. The novel glitters with careful research into such arcana as seventeenth-century lead-mining, sheep-farming, and, of course, medicine, but its true strength is a deep imaginative engagement with how people are changed by catastrophe. Fear and despair fan the usual petty rivalries of village life into murderous hatreds, and the community fragments just when it should be pulling together. A rare few—including the narrator, a young widow who is a servant of the pastor—discover new strengths and abilities. When the epidemic is over, a year later, the survivors are too weary, damaged, and numb to rejoice.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

[Pattypans]

Julieanne, that's why I said 'never or almost never': "It has either never, or almost never, historically been the case that healthy people were quarantined." I was specifically thinking there were most likely some exceptions during the plague. Note that the real village fictionalized in the story made their own decision to isolate themselves.