Part of my motivation for the #Hashtags I have been trying is my daily journey back through the #Blog each day. I originally started doing this years ago to check for and correct link rot.
Over the years I’ve noticed a lot of memes and themes. The most glaring —— semantics and word choices used in news photo captions.
I toyed with the idea of having a category regarding this and soon realized it was so pervasive as to become a full-time job and I already edit those on a regular basis anyway.
People become protestors, demonstrators, rioters, activists, victims, perpetrators, defendants and so on. Usually according to the editorial slant of the caption writer which is almost always in favor of the authorities.
Police are almost always rioting but are portrayed as riot police. They cause the situation they are supposed to be controlling. The people they assault are never victims of police violence but are called suspects, squatters, defendants, perpetrators, rioters, etc.
Internationally banned chemical weapons become tear gas or pepper spray. Lethal high pressure water cannon become water sprays. Lethal projectiles become rubber bullets, flash bangs and so on. Everything a cop uses is potentially lethal. They are all weapons. Guns, clubs, mace, pepper spray, tasers, handcuffs are all weapons and are used routinely to harm and assault people with impunity.
American media are consistently the worst but other countries are recently taking up the mantle of authority and austerity. Phrasing situations to insinuate something the facts don’t warrant.
MjL 09 Apr 2023, 11:10 a.m.
Another subject I forgot to mention above —— terrorism. A word rarely used before Sept. 11th, 2001 and now used retroactively in historical references. I’ve even seen the word used in reference to the the Revolutionary and Civil wars. As. If.
I now routinely strike the word out (even when I use it).
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