Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Euphemisms by Daniel & Cletis

The extreme right wing has always been good at euphemistic language. States' rights was the favored code word justifying slavery 150 years ago and Jim Crow 100 years later. Religious freedom works well for denying women's right to control their own health care and doubles as justification for denying people's right to marry whom they choose. Voter suppression magically becomes about protecting electoral integrity.

Another euphemism in the news recently is right to work. Like states' rights, religious freedom and honest elections, right to work sounds like a good thing. It isn't. Right to work is nothing more than a cynical euphemism for union busting.


Trust me. What's good for the global economy is generally bad for workers. Corporations now have the whole world to find the cheapest available labor in their never ending pursuit for higher profits.

Unions won some early rounds but they've lost every round for the last forty years to an increasingly globalized economy. Can you spell NAFTA CAFTA and TPP?

Capitalism has no conscience. People are expendable. The environment is expendable. Reviving labor unions may well be the only thing standing between the American middle class and extinction.


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