Them, Us, and You
25th June 2009
Normally I don’t blog on such a simple sentence, but this one is a Tip of the Iceberg. From a Voice of America article about the continuing unrest and violence in Iran following last week’s elections:
“Iran’s government continues to crack down on the country’s election-protest movement, reportedly making further arrests among the ranks of university professors, journalists, and ordinary citizens.”
Please note that last string of “. . . professors, journalists, and ordinary citizens.” Wouldn’t you normally think of professors and journalists as “ordinary citizens?” Why make this distinction? It has no grammatical or semantic requirement. The sentence does not read more clearly with it.
In my experience, this is a fairly common and unconscious marker of bias in writers who seem to think that the presence of professors and journalists in some event requires a notation, a distinction, hey, this is really important because professors and journalists are involved. This shows how the writers attribute the event, assigns causality to it.
The marker unfortunately also indicates an “us” and “you” distinction that is elitist without awareness, the Emperor Has No Clothes. Sure, “we” are all in this together, “us” cool table people and “you” hoi polloi.
It’s really bad persuasion because it sincerely if accidently reveals the persuader’s true intent.