Why is language important? Well, it's a way of conveying meaning, and when it's used for masquerading meaning instead, that's deceit. Today, too many people misuse language or twist the meaning of words to forward ideology.
"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
-George Orwell
A great thing to go on is Oscar Wilde's Important of Being Earnest. The story focuses on a dishonest man, living a double life, who is trying to become "Ernest." No, not become an earnest man, but to take the name earnest to win over a lady.
We're in a world where virtue is virtue signaling, or what you say you think, not what you do or actually think.
Speaking YOUR truth is what is true, but facts that can be verified through citing data is simply "YOUR opinion."
In other words, we go by the name Ernest, but are in fact a two-faced liar.
Individual: This can make you afraid to speak. You don't know if you should be honest or hide who you are. It's tough to navigate this world because there is no guiding light of truth since everything is manipulable. But, there is something you can do.
Think for yourself. That's all we can do to protect ourselves from this monster that we've allowed to creep into our daily lives. Read, research, discuss, and verify. Look for multiple sources and conflicting viewpoints. Think in a complicated way and disregard slogans.
Culture: The "newspeak" in Orwell's 1984 is here. However, it is not government acting as big brother putting you in a room and torturing you. It's the culture. We've censored ourselves with political correctness, which is newspeak. It is the mobs on Twitter telling us that gender is an ever-moving goal post. It's not tied to sex, now it is and both are malleable. The sexes are different, but equal. Then they're the same, and now they're different again.
Winston doesn't break when he admits that 2+2=4. It's when he says that 2+2 is whatever Big Brother says it is that he looses himself. He surrenders objective truth in favor of ending his torture.
Economics: This area is rife with terms that confuse people because their unfamiliar with it. It's easy for people to tell any tale of an economy to people who don't know what the metrics mean. A few examples:
Unemployment- This excludes anyone who isn't looking for work. So, you can lower unemployment by creating jobs and keeping the number of people not looking for work the same or by keeping job numbers the same and increasing the number of people not looking for work.
Capitalism- This is not a system that simply benefits the rich or creates class divides. It is a system where property rights are preserved and people own the fruits of their labor. The reason it's created major inequalities over the last 200 years or so is because capital had to condense to create efficiencies necessary to be profitable. Since the Industrial Revolution, we've needed economies of scale. I think we are going to see a shift there.
Socialism- This isn't "sharing." Sharing is done freely by one's own choice, not coercion. Socialism requires that the government nationalizes industries, forces redistribution of wealth, and sets controls on prices. Effectively, the government administers and oversees the entire economy.
