“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.”
"How To Build A Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" (1978)
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Philip K. Dick 278
American author 1928–1982Related quotes
“Islamophobia: a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.”
Andrew Cummins (@Vodkaninja), Twitter, December 4 2013. Screen capture https://homoeconomicusnet.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/did-christopher-hitchens-say-that-on-islamophobia-or-someone-on-twitter/.
Misattributed
Source: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence
“There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner.”
Source: The Thirteenth Tale
Letter to Larry Callen (14 July 1958), p. 133
1990s, The Proud Highway : The Fear and Loathing Letters Volume I (1997)
Context: I find that by putting things in writing I can understand them and see them a little more objectively. … For words are merely tools and if you use the right ones you can actually put even your life in order, if you don't lie to yourself and use the wrong words.
“Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.”
Variant: "Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to."
Context: A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find someone who's forgotten words so I can have a word with him?...
Variant: Television is by nature the dominator drug par excellence. Control of content, uniformity of content, repeatability of content make it inevitably a tool of coersion, brainwashing, and manipulation.
Source: Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge