The word "Obamacare."

The bill to repeal the Affordable Care and Patient Protection act was called something like "Repealing the Job Killing Healthcare Act."

what's quite interesting is how the politicians are using language to indoctrinate people in really insidious ways.

It's not insidious, it's obvious.

its a bit of both, as well as an attempt to show what I mean. I refer to snarl words, words meant to invoke a gut impulse after being conditioned to associate those words with emotions. a list, taken from Rational Wiki:

edited 27th May '11 8:58:34 PM by Enkufka

I dont take anyone who uses the term Obamacare seriously.

So you could call this... Caregate?

Huh, canards are forward wing surfaces in my book.

^No, but there is Romneycaregate.

Thread Hop: the media has a severe hardon for Portmanteaus, regardless of how crappy or inaccurate. Or crapurate.

On the topic of silly political terms, I present the name of the current Italian electoral system: "Porcellum" ("porcello" means "piglet").

The reason for this is that the minister who proposed it was unhappy with the modifications that the Parliament made to his proposal, and went on record stating that the variant which was eventually approved was a "porcata" (literally, "something fit for swine").

The media ran with it, and since the previous electoral system was usually called "Mattarellum" (after the name of Mattarella, the politician who proposed it — no clue as to why they thought it good to attach a Latin ending), the common name for our electoral system now translates as "Pigletium".

edited 28th May '11 12:22:44 AM by Carciofus

still it beats that hogwash about 'death panels'.

edited 28th May '11 1:17:00 AM by joeyjojo

You see, that was an outright lie. That's a little different, you have to respect somebody who's repeating their lines because Sarah Palin made a facebook post about it. It'd be nice to live life without thinking.

Actually, I don't have to respect someone who repeats that load of crap. It was based on utter lies, and severely damaged any debate about reform. There were other things which made sure that proper reform was impossible (the tea party, various planted citizens hired by Americans For Prosperity ordered to make meetings impossible).

And what truly surprises me is that the country is in a highly similar situation from that, with roles reversed (republicans as the reformers and villains and democrats as the defenders)... and now we see the true colors of many politicians. But I'm already off topic...

What about renaming other bills? IE "Paul Ryans Voucher System"

edited 28th May '11 9:34:22 AM by Enkufka

^I was being just a tad Ironic.

But yeah, I wonder what things would be like if every bill had it's cheif sponsor's name attached to it.

We'd likely know more about our politicians. Other than Paul Ryan, and formerly Fitzgerald (FUUUUUUUU) I have no clue who my senators are.

You have 50% of them.

I've got Blumenthal and Lieberman. Both decent fellows, although their time won't last much longer.

edited 28th May '11 9:46:57 AM by HungryJoe

A sad, sad day... Fitzgerald was voted out in favor of a guy who owns his own company, is socially conservative (IE inn favor of outlawing abortion completely, thinks gays don't have the right to marry, etc.) and has always voted with the party. We went from the one guy who voted against the PATRIOT act to a guy with an active conflict of interest...

Couldn't the Death Panel thing count as Slander?

Don't you mean "blood libel"?

What? OH haha, yeah that was funny.

I think slander only counts against people. this is more intentional distortion of facts/outright lies which used to be covered by the Fairness Doctrine, which had all news stations present both sides of a controversial issue with equal air time. It was de-facto repealed in the 80's under Reagan, when the head person of the FCC stopped enforcing it since he saw it as violating the first amendment. The fall of the fairness doctrine and the switch to FM radio in the late 80's/early 90's is what led directly to the rise of conservative talk radio.

And Knowing Is Half the Battle.

a bit

I believe it's now the Paul Ryan Sells Out Medicare in Order to Kill Seniors and Still Fail to Balance the Budget Act.

Still, when Death Panel is an outright blatant lie being spread around, doesn't that count for something?

Not when you're in an ocean of mud that has been slung around as much as it has.

edited 28th May '11 12:47:07 PM by Usht

Wow. I didn't even know "Obamacare" was intended as a derisive name. In my French-cultured mind, I assumed that was how Democrats themselves advertised it.

PS: How the hell could a healthcare bill have any influence on employment?

A lot of people need to work two jobs in the US to cover health costs. Maybe that, I don't know.

edited 30th May '11 2:00:46 AM by joeyjojo

Healthcare costs in america are ridiculously expensive and inefficient, and often insurance companies will increase the price further based on your medical history, like how car insurance companies will increase your premiums based on your job or age. Employers can provide healthcare options from insurance companies.

Not sure how well I'm conveying it now. I'll try again in about 8 hours.