Words Matter
There are certain words that have become the most powerful words on earth.
But not for the reason you think.
They are powerful because the second you hear them or see them, your brain instantly calls forth a corresponding image. Or a belief.
I’m going to give you some examples of those words now.
Flat Earther
Anti-Vaxxer
Florida Man
Sovereign Citizen
Climate Change Denier
Any of ‘em strike a nerve and bring forth an image? If not an image, then perhaps an automatic judgment? Yes? Congratulations, you’re normal.
Up until a few years ago, on the rare occasion that I heard the words “flat” and “earth” strung together, my brain would immediately show me a meme. In the meme, planet earth is as flat as a pancake, and a man is driving a horse and buggy right off the edge. Into the eternal expanse of space.
I don’t even know where I saw this meme. Facebook probably. It was years ago. Maybe a decade or more, even. I had been innocently scrolling my feed, and I paused for a moment to look at the flat earth and thought, “There can’t possibly be people who believe this. You’d have to be a complete moron.” Then I quickly scrolled past.
There were a few more times, with a few other memes or tweets, but I paid no attention.
I don’t waste my time investigating moron-people stuff.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not about to try to convince you that the earth is flat. I wouldn’t make you waste your time on moron-people stuff either.
Stick with me here.
Years later, when the idea of the flat earth was presented to me by a friend (who I immediately assumed had gone insane), I had to do a little more than scroll past a meme. I had to at least make sure that my friend of 20 years was okay. So I heard her out. Within ten minutes of her explaining the very basics of Flat Earth theory, I had a full blown panic attack.
Not because she had somehow miraculously convinced me that the earth was flat.
Not because I was terrified for her, and her mental well being.
But because I realized very quickly, that I had formed a belief around something (really strong and kind of hostile belief too) that I knew nothing about.
I had seen a meme once or twice.
Apparently that was enough? I guess it helped that 100% of everyone agrees that Flat Earthers are clearly unwell idiots from Arkansas or something.
We are all in consensus on this. And if everybody believes it, it must be true.
But the “truth” is not what’s important here. Your belief about the shape of our physical world is not the point.
The point is that you formed a belief about a group of people without having any proof.
You don’t even understand the theory.
You’ve never even seen an accurate model of the flat earth. You’ve seen an image on a screen. And that was enough for you to just blindly believe what everyone else around you was saying. (Or rather, commenting.) You believed false images on a screen, and attached negative connotations to other human beings who might believe differently than you do. You also gave yourself license to make fun of them.
That’s fucking scary.
If you don’t understand why this is scary, then I hate to break it to you, but you’ve got some reading to do. You’ll need to brush up on things like “propaganda” and Nazi Germany and maybe some light reading on brainwashing tactics.
It is that serious.
Because it goes both ways. There are words in the English language that were meant to be the most powerful words we know. So powerful that we have memorized many of them. We are mandated to learn about the words all throughout our education. We repeat them robotically in unison sometimes, with our hand over our heart. It’s real creepy. It’s been creepy for a long time now.
However, what’s even creepier is that the mandated, robotic repetition of the words is exactly how they lost their power. They are empty now. Meaningless. Boring. So ground into us due to compulsory schooling that we have no interest in ever thinking about them again. They are words like
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.
How did the media make the words about absurdity so powerful? Did they do it on purpose?
And why is the collective unconscious forgetting what the actual powerful words said? Did we mean to forget them? Why do the words about our unalienable rights feel so empty? So flat? So meaningless?
“Flat Earther” actually makes ya feel somethin’.
“Sovereign Citizen” too, thanks to some viral police cam videos of crazy people being pulled over for driving drunk.
I’m only just now remembering how to spell the word “sovereign.” Actually, I didn’t even really understand the definition of the word until I looked it up recently. Do you remember? It might be the most powerful word of them all, actually…