Hillary Clinton In Big Brother Conversationgate
HILLARY Clinton in conversation with Big Brother.
Quote: “One month ago, I began a conversation with you… I hope you’ve learned a little bit more about what I’m believing and trying to do, and really help this conversation about our country get started. I hope to keep this conversation going.” Hillary Clinton as Big Sister in a YouTube attack video.
Figure of Speech: antistrephon (an-TIS-tre-phon), the boomerang figure. From the Greek, meaning “turning to the opposite side.”
A mysteriously produced video takeoff on Apple’s famous “1984” ad shows a zombified audience staring at a giant screen while a scary-looking Senator Clinton speaks. The video ends with an athletic woman shattering the screen with a sledgehammer. Why did the video’s makers choose to have Hillary talk about a “conversation”? Because they want to turn a favorable label against her. Watch the ad, and “conversation” sounds like a dictator’s doublespeak.
The video constitutes a masterful antistrephon, a figure of redefinition that turns your opponent’s term against him. The technology makes this seem like a new political tactic. But in the early 1800s, politicos used the same rhetorical device: they printed anonymous pamphlets that boomeranged their rivals’ terms.
YouTube’s political videos, in other words, are nothing more than computerized pamphleteering.
Snappy Answer: “When do I get to talk?”
Posted: 22nd, March 2007 | In: Uncategorized Comments (6) | TrackBack | Permalink
