Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter
But that would be their choice.
It's widely known as the Bedroom Tax, in the same way that the Community Charge was referred to as the Poll Tax, or the TV licence as the Telly Tax.
Most people use this term, not just opposition parties, even though it isn't technically a tax.
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... as a result of a deliberate political campaign designed to condition the way the debate is conducted, even the way the subject may be thought about, by dictating the language that may be used. The value of this approach is evident in your comments - you argue for its use based on the breadth of its uptake, to the point of insinuating someone is callous towards the deaths of thousands of people, simply for insisting on referring to the matter in other terms. As well you might. After all, it’s a tax, right? Anyone who appears to justify, excuse or dissemble when poor people are literally being taxed to death deserves it, don’t they?
The tragedy is, this is actually, genuinely, a key theme in George Orwell’s
1984, a book so widely referenced with regards to totalitarian government that few people realise how many of the tactics of the Ministry of Truth are in common use in our democratic politics.
”But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”