Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Keywords is a guide to the evasions, neologisms, and half-truths of mainstream political media, but it also gives readers tools to understand the enduring vocabulary of radical movement-building. "Liberal," and "centrist," for example, obscure as much as they reveal about the positions they ostensibly describe. "Socialism," though, is an idea and a tradition that has found new life in recent years. "Neoliberalism" and "intersectional" are routinely used and abused on the activist left and by some of its mainstream citicss.
Keywords: The New Language of Politics will catalog the evasions that make up an ideology of mainstream politics in the United States. It will equip readers to use the words that really do mean something, as well as the tools to dismiss those that don't.
In addition to challenging the jargon of the corporate media and politicians Leary also leads readers through the very real debates about words with power: socialism, intersectionality, liberal, conservative, green, materialist.
Synopsis
From liberal to the economy the terms used by pundits and politicians to
explain our civic structures tend to obscure as much as they reveal
about the reality they ostensibly describe. Yet the enduring vocabulary
of radical movement-building can be equally opaque when filtered through
both the distortions of the status quo and the partisan interests of
the activist left. How do we make sense of terms like socialism and intersectional that are so routinely used and abused by such a wide
array of commentators from across the political spectrum?
Keywords for Capitalism is a probing and insightful guide
designed to equip readers with the tools to do just that. Leary takes a
wit-sharpened scalpel to the evasions, neologisms, and half-truths that
crowd 'the discourse' and reveals the ideology of the mainstream
political media that lies just below the surface. In the process he also
carefully leads readers through the very real debates about the words
that really do mean something, attentively distinguishing the substance worth preserving from the froth that should be dismissed.
This masterful dressing down of corporate media jargon is
accompanied by over thirty illustrations that amplify and augment
Leary's searing words.
Synopsis
Keywords for Capitalism: Power, Society, Politics is a field guide to the way we talk about politics in the United States today.