Phil Ayesho
Superior Member
The right word is entitlement. I am entitled to use my Visa card the way I want to you may not use mine, you're not entitled. If you get your own, you will be entitled to use yours as you see fit. The word has more than one definition. I am entitled to my Social Security benefit because I paid into it for 45 years. My friend who never held a job and did not pay into it was denied benefits because he is not entitled. It means what has been earned, not only what you might be due in a will or by accident of birth.
Keep thinking that way and you are being played.
YOU don't define words. Usage does, and in the political sphere this word is being used as a denigration. iT is being used to skew your perceptions.
Your example proves that it works. You being 'entitled' to your own visa card is you having the 'right's to spend money that ISN'T yours. You are entitled to rack up debt.
And that is exactly the connotation the GOP WANTS you to form in your head regarding Social Security. You spending money that isn't yours.
Now, I KNOW that that is not what you meant to imply by your example.... I know you think I am twisting your example around...
but I promise you, your example is NOT a picture of your going into debt by coincidence. When the right tests wording they actually ask a battery of questions and specifically LOOK for people to make the exact KIND of association you just did.
Because THAT is how effective persuasion works. You THINK you are using the word correctly, but how you understand the word is being steered.
I am not making this up- there are courses you can take in how to sway opinions thru manipulation of people's perceptions by the words they use.
Sorry- but your example ought to frighten you. Its just that easy to skew people's mindsets to equate 'entitlement' with 'debt'.
With spending money that you haven't earned yet.