‘Fees’ have been bad for business. For some of the airline companies and some financial firms, for example. Bad for their brand image.
Folks shaping opinion had to do something… and a softer, gentler word came to mind. The word ‘pricing’.
Hoping the terrible fee-word would be forgotten, company spokespersons started talking about ‘pricing’ products and services.
Trying to shape opinion with a word like that – a word like ‘pricing’ — compared to some of the mean-spirited, misleading words being used, nowadays, by some politicians, in particular, and their acolytes… there’s just no comparison!
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, was on TV the other day, with words about the Republican Party, and the Democratic Party, too. With words like ‘crazy right,’ regarding some Republicans, as I recall, and the words ‘tearing down, rather than building up,’ he was expressing concerns and angst about where his GOP was heading. And concerns about where the Democratic Party might be heading, as well, if things get crazy on the left-hand side of political ideology.
Although I remember him saying that, regarding craziness, the Republicans were way ahead.
With words — when he was the president, and now as a former president — Donald Trump has been shaping opinion, attempting most recently to shape opinion of Republican House Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell. Mr. Trump, according to an article in The Hill, “reportedly tore into” the Kentucky senator “for not doing more to overturn the results of the 2020 election,” even referring to McConnell “as a ‘dumb son of a bitch’ during a speech to members of the Republican National Committee… and suggested Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) would have fought for Trump if they were in the same party.”
With words, Senator McConnell, himself, recently “called the outrage against GOP-led voter suppression efforts ‘a fake narrative’ meant to ‘mislead and bully the American people,'” according to an article in USA Today. His words, if we’re reading them right, seemed to suggest that expressing concerns about voting rights was some kind of an outrage? Against voter suppression? Meant to bully people?
Is it just me having trouble fathoming the words?
It’s scary what people in high places are trying to do, with their words.
At least, people shaping opinion about fees, years ago, used ‘pricing’… that softer, gentler word, rather than the devilish words politicians and their acolytes are using, nowadays.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.