Political Semantic Change: Know not What to Say, but What to Mean
In the modern world, where language changes rapidly within various social groups and mass amounts of media are produced by political figures/institutions to whom political subcultures are tied, it is no surprise that semantic change is a documented political strategy. As they are used in political discourse, words start to lose their meaning or are otherwise adopted by a political group (or their opponent) for various goals. For example, the word "woke," while originally used especially among Black users for left-wing political speech (considered to correspond with the Black Lives Matter movement), eventually gained a negative connotation among right-wing groups that, in right-wing eyes, delegitimized activists using "woke" for self-identification. Even words like "democracy" and "liberty" mean wildly different things to different groups, and their vague nature lets politicians use them as buzzwords to appeal to a variety of people while claiming very little, since claiming anything is an opportunity for voters to disagree or an opponent to refute. Mass media, political pulpits, algorithmic echo chambers, and other tools are the mediums for deliberate, political semantic change.
In an environment where people can't agree on the basics of language, not just from natural forces (which do worsen the problem) but from deliberate political moves, writing words-first is risky, and knowing not just what you want to say but what you want to mean is key to effective communication. Additionally, if in a discussion with someone which seems to be going nowhere, learn what they mean when they use words like "woke," "gender," "justice," and "equality," and explain what you mean when you use those words (or don't bother with the words with all the charge they bring; feel free to explain what you mean literally).
If you're not on the same page, remember that you might not be in the same dictionary.
References / Works to check out:
(Bleich et al., 2025; The Politics of Language: Politicized Semantic Change, Pejoration and the Case of “Woke”) Nice paper for a theoretical model of the kinds of politically-motivated semantic change groups use.
(Butler, 2024; Who's Afraid of Gender?) A polemic by Judith Butler involving the political usage and shaping of the word "gender" to foster the "anti-gender movement" and drive authoritarian politics.
(Orwell, 1946; Politics and the English Language) Smaller essay by George Orwell expressing his discontent with the political-linguistic trends that we can still see in the modern day.
(Subversive Semantics in Political and Cultural Discourse, 2023) Lengthy, but contains a variety of topics for exploration.
