Changing Definitions
There used to be an ad that played on the radio an awful lot. It was for some sort of personal development plan, and it began by saying, “Words mean things…and the words you use tell people a lot about you.”
I’m reminded of that every time I hear news from Washington that–for example–a Supreme Court nominee is touted as the first African-American woman to be selected, but under oath she will not define what a “woman” is.
Now the definition of recession has changed, if you believe the White House. For months, we’ve been reminded that “everyone” agrees that two straight quarters of drop in the Gross Domestic Product, the GDP, is how we tell if we are in a recession. That’s the technical definition that economists and analysts use, and the thing we’ve all been told to look for.
But now that it appears there will be firm data to show a second-straight quarterly drop, the White House is pre-emptively issuing statements saying there’s no such general agreement, and the press secretary refuses to define recession from the news briefing podium.
They don’t want to have the country in a recession going into a midterm election, apparently…so they’ll change the definition. Sort of like if a team doesn’t want to lose a football game, they declare that touchdowns are no longer worth six points when they’re ahead by five.
This from a party whose president, while under oath in a deposition, once challenged what the definition of the word “is” is.
And don’t forget that the definition of vaccine even changed on the government’s website…instead of a vaccine being a disease preventer, it simply helped in lessening illness severity…which should have been our first clue about the COVID vaccine in practice.
Nothing means anything anymore…convenient altering of words just to satisfy the moment. Our slide, sadly, continues.
