George Lakoff: Frames, Metaphors & Politics

Often referred to as the "father of framing," Professor George Lakoff is a renowned cognitive linguist whose work has contributed to a new understanding of the ways that conceptual frames and metaphors shape our social and political lives.

Nathalia Ramos (Berggruen Institute) and Max Henning (USC Brain & Creativity Institute) spoke with Professor Lakoff to get his take on the strategies that both Democrats and Republicans are using to frame this election and, beyond that, how developing new frames is key to reviving civil discourse in this country and building a flourishing & sustainable future.

*Clarification: This interview was recorded last week (Oct 20, 2020), and in the discussion the speakers are referring to the Town Hall debates which held on Oct 15 in separate locations.

[aidando]

I just discovered framing. It's great to have a word for this, as I didn't notice it before and now I can. This was a great talk. Really interesting the stuff on zero-sum frames.

[briantodd]

It was fun listening to Lakoff talk about being a student of John Nash and hearing Ramos and Henning’s reaction!

[raycosmic]

Trump has the empathy of a warrior. Biden has the empathy of a parent.

Frame = context = perspective

[ihorperec]

Conservatives in the United States have been very successful in using catchphrases, aphorisms, euphemisms, deceptive metaphors, and propaganda clichés against liberals. Liberals, unfortunately, lag behind conservatives in this regard.

For example, conservatives call liberals "leftists" and "socialists", even though liberalism and socialism are completely different concepts. This is done to corrupt the very concept of liberalism by tying it to such phenomena as Stalinism, the USSR, the Gulag, North Korea, etc.

Liberal values are sometimes referred to by conservatives as "San Francisco values". By this conservatives allude to many social problems in the city (e.g. homelessness) and to the fact that San Francisco is one of the LGBT centers in the country. That is, conservatives seek to convince the average person that liberal values lead to poverty, homelessness, and LGBT "omnipotence".

During the fight against marriage equality, conservatives used the phrase "defense of marriage", when in fact they were fighting a type of marriage. This hypocrisy is very typical of conservatives.

The estate tax or inheritance tax was dubbed by conservatives "the death tax", to create in the mind of the average person an image of soulless government officials taking money away from a grieving family. Although the taxes collected by the state are primarily for the benefit of the average citizen.

To create distrust of the liberal media, conservatives invented the phrase "liberal media elite", which gives the false impression that all media is controlled by liberals and that poor conservatives are not given a say.

The use of adjectives is interesting. The phrase "staunch conservative" is used in relation to stallwart conservatives, but in relation to stallwart liberals the phrase "knee-jerk liberal" is used to imply that the liberal worldview is supposedly a set of rash, instinctive reactions to the outside world. (The word knee-jerk means a person's automatic reaction to a medical mallet hitting his knee joint.)

There is the phrase "limousine liberals", coined by conservatives to portray liberals as a small, wealthy elite detached from the people who do not understand the needs of the common people. On the whole, though, American conservatives are richer than liberals and even less aware of the needs of the common folks. As the saying goes, look who is talking....

The silly myth of God's creation of the world was called "creationism" by conservatives, as if it were a scientific field worthy of in-depth study. Years later, when people realized that this was nonsense, they replaced the term with "intelligent design" and even invented a new theory pretending to be scientific.

In a similar way, conservatives updated the phrase "political correctness", instead of which they now use the word "woke" (although it was originally used in progressive circles in the African-American community and meant heightened sensitivity to injustice, oppression, racism, etc.) But conservatives, of course, use the word woke as a mockery of liberals.

Conservative media more often refer to the wealthy rich as "hardworking taxpayers".

They call the fetus in the mother's body "unborn baby" to give the impression that abortion is the murder of a human being.

When conservative judges make radical decisions, it is considered normal and natural, but when liberal judges do it, they label them "activist judges, " insinuating that they are allegedly acting contrary to the constitution and against fundamental principles of law enforcement.

In short, the ideological struggle between conservatives and liberals is also taking place in the linguistic sphere, where, unfortunately, the advantage is clearly on the side of the former.

[siniel]

beauty is not only a product of wealth, but a commodity within and of itself. In other words, it is no longer the search for wealth to find beauty but the search for beauty to find status. now beauty can give the illusion of wealth
Do you agree of this?

[deadman]

I wish Lakoff didn't so misunderstand Nietzsche. The concept of empathy (but *not* pity) and love as _power_ is essential to understanding him.

[newtalking]

What’s all this “we” and them? I thought this was academic ? It seems biased