We often hear phrases like “climate change,” “gun violence,” and “gender-affirming care” on repeat in the media — and it may seem like a war of words and the hijacking of language to promote leftist narratives.
A new campaign called Language Watch aims to expose how common phrases are being used as propaganda and how to fight back against words and phrases that are misleading America.
Dan Curry, the chief strategy officer of Restoration of America — the non-profit organization behind “Language Watch” — says the constant repeating of key words and phrases isn’t an accident. Curry also explained how the Language Watch program seeks to shed light on the truth behind leftist attempts to control the language we use everyday.
Language warfare
“There is a war on words. There is language warfare going on in this country. Some conservatives don’t know this war is going on. They’re stealing our language in broad daylight … The left is using narratives that they’ve crafted, and they’ve used propaganda terms to frame the issues. These propaganda terms are completely loaded. They’re tilting the battleground. We noticed that at Restoration of America, we said, how can we fight back against this?” Curry said.
Every other week, Restoration of America releases one-minute videos about key phrases and words to focus on.
Curry explained, “We’re not trying to debate the issue in these one-minute videos. What we’re trying to do is point out to the public that the phrase itself is loaded. We’re trying to alert people that a phrase that they may be using is not fair. It’s not a neutral way to frame something. It’s a politically loaded and charged phrase.”
‘Gun violence’ — a loaded phrase
The phrase “gun violence” is one example of a political phrase, according to Restoration of America. Evidence of this can be found in the news and social media as Democratic leaders in Minnesota pointed out “gun violence” after Minneapolis police officer Jamal Mitchell was shot and killed along with civilians Mohamed Aden and Osman Said Jimale.
Just hours after Officer Mitchell’s tragic death, Gov. Tim Walz was quick to blame his death on “gun violence” — and not the actual suspect.
Tonight a family got the worst news of their lives. 28-year-old Minneapolis Police Officer Jamal Mitchell was killed in an act of gun violence while responding to an emergency call.
Our entire state is mourning as Minneapolis reels from this tragedy.
— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) May 31, 2024
Likewise, Minneapolis City Council Member Aisha Chughtai seemed to parrot Walz’s use of the phrase “gun violence.” Chughtai quite noticeably never mentioned the name of Officer Mitchell.
Minneapolis City Council Member Aisha Chughtai makes no mention of the fact that Officer Jamal Mitchell was killed in her statement on Thursday's mass shooting pic.twitter.com/X2nlYt4o2y
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) June 2, 2024
Speaking from personal experience, Curry said, “It’s a very sad situation as someone who spent their whole career in the Chicago area. I’ve watched this, this thing play out time and time and time again. Someone is tragically killed in the inner city of Chicago and political leaders come out, do a press conference and they immediately, instead of getting at the underlying causes, the, the destruction of the family, all these other causes that are really causing the problem, they attack the guns, gun violence. It’s a phrase they use. Therefore, they don’t have to answer those questions about these cultural problems that have caused this to happen. They just demonize the gun. It’s a deflection is what it is.”
‘Climate change’ — and how nothing changes but the weather
Restoration of America has also released a video about the phrase “climate change” as part of their Language Watch program.
In pointing out the problems with the highly politicized phrase, Curry explained, “If you go back and follow history and follow how we use language around climate, it used to be called global cooling, originally. There was all these in the 70s, the coming ice age, there were all kinds of articles that are appearing in Time Magazine, Newsweek Magazine. Then, suddenly it became global warming. Al Gore popularized that, and the planet was warming, the planet was warming, you know, it’s out of control. Then, there was a period of time for about 15 years where the global satellite temperatures flatlined. Therefore, it wasn’t warming anymore. That was inconvenient to those trying to spread this, so they started using the phrase climate change.”
“It’s just a nonsensical phrase, really, and we’re nonsensically using it, parroting it, and we should stop using it. ‘Climate change’ is really a silly, stupid phrase that we should not use,” he added.
Restoration of America has also taken on other alarming terms, including “gender affirming care,” “election denier,” and “abortion rights.” These and other upcoming Language Watch videos can be found here.
Liz Collin
Liz Collin has been a truth-teller for 20 years as a multi-Emmy-Award-winning reporter and anchor. Liz is a Worthington, Minnesota native who lives in the suburbs with her husband, son and loyal lab.
