Weekend Wordery: “Socialism” vs. “Capitalism”
A Pew Research survey last month looked at whether people responded positively or negatively to various descriptors of political ideology, with the results shown in this graph:
The interesting takeaway is supposed to be that attitudes about “capitalism” and “socialism” are not correlated with each other. (More detail here.)
My reaction: why go to all the trouble of planning and executing a survey like this just to find out whether people react positively or negatively to various words? Shouldn’t you look for interesting correlations (other than party identification and demographics) that might give clues as to why people react the way they do? As is, the survey appears designed to produce little more than sensationalist teasers about how Democrats love socialism and how Republicans are surprisingly cool towards militias.
What do people think those words mean? Couldn’t you try to tease that out, just a hair? And why would you not allow for some gradations of intensity? At least, say, a “neutral” reaction. Again, as is, it seems like the survey is rigged to exaggerate markers of partisan ideology.
It’s all fine and good to explore ideological divides. But is this kind of survey really telling us anything? And if not, why bother?
Via the Monkey Cage.
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Jim, the survey demonstrates that many people attach their own meanings to words. Thus, it is difficult to have a reasonable discussion with. Look to the bottom of the graph to see my point.
How could a super-majority of people have favorable opinions of “states rights” and “civil rights” unless they don’t understand that the term states rights arose in one group to oppose another group’s assertion of civil rights? Is it possible to favor both terms if you know the origin of each?
Likewise with “family values” and “civil liberties”. The term family values came into our vocabulary to promote the extremist view of a religious sect who would use the government to impose its view of the world on everyone else. Thus if another group wished to enjoy a civil liberty such as a religious view differing from the family value, well, lookout.
I think the graph demonstrates that dictionaries are under used.