Corruption and Madison Avenue #1

I’m still fascinated by the language of scandal and corruption. I apologize up front to the good folk of Madison Avenue; unfortunately I am of an age that the term means more to me than the latter day ‘spin’. The burden of Madison Avenue rests in its being the birthplace of modern ‘language sanitation’. (The thought does occur that the wily Avenue burgers invented ‘spin’ to relieve themselves of the burden.)
Researching the various forms of public misbehaviour around the world shows up just how far the powerful in the US will go to negate their misdeeds with sanitized language.
As far back as Mr Webster the US took of on a different language route, in general terms. Madison Avenue simply added to the discrepancies, as a way of putting the best face on a situation.
For those of us raised in other cultures the language can lead to serious confusion. The US, for example, has changed a perfectly sound political/economic word Liberal from a valuable descriptive term to a pejorative. The basis of Liberalism is well defined, if a little legalistically, as follows:

* an ethical emphasis on the individual as a rights-bearer prior to the existence of any state, community, or society,
* the support of the right of property carried to its economic conclusion, a free-market system,
* the desire for a limited constitutional government to protect individuals' rights from others and from its own expansion, and
* the universal applicability of these above convictions.

Not so in the Great USA: I-Hate-Liberals.com sums it up as well as any: Liberals Suck & Democrats Are Dangerous! Apart from the juvenile sentiments, the site portrays:

"…some of the most guilty liberals in America. Guilty of undermining what makes our country great: traditional family values, a belief in God and Country, and the fact that we are the only nation that has the balls to stand up and fight for what is right and just, and for those who are powerless to do it for themselves. "

The site offers a hate filled tour of “these shameless liberal America haters”.
Hang on, they aren’t liberals! Find your own hateful terms and leave our poor words alone.

The same can be said, of course, for the US use of the terms ‘conservative’ and ‘radical’. By any measure of sociopolitical understanding, the dominant ‘conservatives’, in the USA are in fact radicals. They are not trying to conserve, maintain the status quo or any of those actions common to conservatives. They are trying to radically change the very bases of ‘democratic’ society.

What I find especially telling is that America does not have corruption, it has scandal! (If you doubt me do a search of the two terms on Google news.) Give me a break George! Bribery is corruption! Extortion is corruption! Vote fraud is corruption! A scandal is the scent of corruption, the fallout, the disgrace; not the action!
Simply saying it doesn’t make it so. Manipulating language simple displays ignorance not innocence.

So much to say, so little time… Back soon with more language mangling and corrupt useage.