Words and Meanings

On Feb. 20, 2023 Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted “We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”

She received over 10,600 retweets, 14,100 quote tweets (that’s re-quoting the tweet), and over 78,300 likes of the tweet. I was unable to figure how many responses there were to this quote — but with just a quick glance many of the people commenting were trying to figure out the logistics of how it would work.

The point of this post is not to focus on the representative or her idea. It’s to focus on something much deeper — words and meanings and the effect that they have on people.

I want to ask you a question — go back through Rep. Greene’s tweet and examine the words. Of the words that she uses, how many of those words would you say could be pulled out because there is a difference of opinion about what the word means? Or stated differently — could you argue that Rep. Greene, along with others, are inherently implying one definition for a word used that might be different than what someone else, who carries a different belief system, could use for the same word?

Here’s what I mean in plain language — when I look at her tweet, I’m curious. I have questions. Who is we? What is meant by national? What is meant by national divorce? I’m not talking about logistics. I’m…