The Thousand Times Spoken Lie Becomes Truth – A warning for today. We must hold fast to meaning and resist manipulation.
Words are important. There is a movement to day to change the meaning of words to obscure meanings of words that would ground us in freedom and truth; by saying that words are just made up and can mean whatever we want them to mean they can manipulate people by changing the direction of conversations and even the understanding of history. This is not true. This is manipulative. Like Herr Goebbels quote in the title he insisted that if you repeat a lie often enough it is treated as the truth. This is, actually, true. This is part of the dumbing down process that the elite use to make you more easily manipulated. Words are necessary for communication and if we don’t embrace common meanings then we cannot communicate. But also, if we lose contact with the meanings passed down through the ages then we can no longer understand what history is warning us about. Perhaps that is intentional.
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“If you wish to converse with me, define your terms.” Voltaire once said. That was important in his day before dictionaries came into being. But it is equally important today as the meaning in dictionaries is being changed. The internet is wonderful. It puts so much information at our fingertips. However, its great weakness is that people can make subtle changes to the text, or “frame” original texts with “explanations” that manipulate us and predispose us to misunderstand or misinterpret the text that is there. In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the main character’s job is to rewrite texts to change the meaning and thus change what people think. I have seen this on the internet. And it is alarming. I do not, however, see it in my books. I have over 1000 non-fiction books of history, speeches, and other historic texts and those cannot be changed or manipulated by others. Give preference to books, no one can take them from you. The government has insured that they can cut you off from the internet whenever they wish to. But they cannot as easily cut you off from books that you own.
I had an instructor who spoke of this danger regarding original texts. He said don’t ask for people’s interpretation of a text until you have read it for yourself and decided what it means. Only then, when you have your own understanding should you ask what other people have thought about it. This is a problem with education. They are not teaching the actual texts they are teaching their interpretation of history and indoctrinating their opinions rather than letting you come to your own conclusions. (See Who Stole Your Education? Were You Educated or Indoctrinated? – SabersEdge )
I had this experience with someone over a Bible text. She said that miracles didn’t happen today because we were in a different “dispensation of grace” and that there were different “dispensations” through a time where God (note that this is the God who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow mind you,) supposedly acted differently. “Where did you get that?” I asked. “From the Bible.” was the reply. “No that is not in there. I have read it cover to cover several times.” She insisted it was and I challenged her to find it. She could not. She later told me it was in the notes that were included in her “study” Bible. In this way, she came to confuse someone’s opinions with what the text actually said. The same is true for those who only know the bible from the preaching of a preacher and haven’t read it themselves. It is an important warning for all of us.
Repeatedly and increasingly, I find it harder to find original texts on the internet that are not contaminated by someone’s interpretation telling me what I am supposed to think about the text. Or that just give me “highlights” that they think are important. Yet the original writer thought it was ALL important or they wouldn’t have written it. The highlights tell us more about the person reviewing the text than it does about the actual text. Presumably, this is necessary because they use “uncommon words” but these words are uncommon because our education system has failed. When I went to school in grade school we needed to write ten words that we didn’t know and their definitions in our notebook each week. The teacher would review them and we drew them from the dictionary. This, naturally, increased our vocabulary. Today I see a horrible epidemic of people using the wrong words or using words incorrectly. We have been dumbed down because dumb people can be more easily manipulated. It should make you angry that you haven’t been educated properly and you should do something about it. Read on.
Years ago progressives tried to pass an amendment that prevented any discrimination based on your sex. Because this was too broad and could include having sex with children it never passed but many laws passed that used a biological term. You could not discriminate based upon Gender. At the time everyone understood Gender to mean your biologically determined sex. It has not escaped me that the same group of people has now poured a great deal of effort into changing the meaning of the word Gender so that it will change the understanding of the laws and accomplish their political goals through the “back door” so to speak. We used to call these people “liars.” But that too seems to be changing in meaning also. What we used to call liars are now called “journalists” and “senators” “representatives” “councilmen or women” and even “presidents”. Changing words to mean something else is not working in our favor. Maybe we should stop it. The French have a committee to preserve the integrity of their language, I used to make fun of that. Maybe they had something there. Beware of any who would change the meaning, no matter how well-intentioned they may be. (See Propaganda, Lies, Corruption, and Misinformation – SabersEdge )
To hold fast to meaning and resist manipulation I suggest you get a dictionary. But be careful. The ones on the internet are dumbing down and changing definitions constantly. I suggest you get one in hardcopy from 1970 or before – you can find them in a used bookstore, garage sale, or thrift store. In those, you will find words that are not manipulated by the idealogues who graduated from schools in the 60s and 70s because they did not yet have control. In those, you will find that every word has roots, like a tree. If you know Greek, Latin, and German you can usually determine the meaning of English words because many of our words grew out of those languages. That is one reason English is messed up. Because these languages, as well as Spanish and French, all influenced modern English, and they come from differing language groups. That is why English is a hard language with different rules from some other languages it is largely a mix. You can always use the internet for finding out the “popular” use of words. But always remember that today’s meaning is being manipulated.
Words are not “made up.” It is not “random.” Language has grown from languages before.
The key point is, that while cavemen may have “made up” words the words that we use now have not been made up, rather, they have grown naturally from words that preceded them. Our society should not pretend there is no meaning; that there is no truth. Every word has its roots and you can trace it back. By understanding those roots you know where the words and the meaning came from. For instance, Fiend comes from old English “Feond” which meant simply “enemy.” It has morphed slightly but shows clearly how we have always tended to dehumanize our enemies, over the centuries fiend has come to mean a monster. So many other words, you will see, come from Latin or French (or another language in its root form) when you see how words fit together you will have a better command of language and it will be harder for people to lie to you.
I remember a college student waving a MAGA hat and saying “This hat literally kills people.” I thought how in the world did any college admit such an idiot? That is “literally” NOT what “literally” means. Look it up. In an old dictionary, and not on the internet.
Once you have your own hard copy dictionary then look up one new word each day, or ten a week, and fortify your thinking with a solid vocabulary.
Without meaning we are lost: https://youtu.be/g1FXBIXfhwo