Mocking emptied political rhetoric can preserve language’s force for real action.

Evidence

I appreciated Greta’s “Blah, blah, blah” speeches because they precisely captured the pervasive feeling of speechlessness, far better than my own impotent and sullen silences in this period. Greta had found a way not only of critiquing language but also of protecting language: she was mocking their words, and what happens to her words in their ears, but she was also saving her words for spaces where they still might matter, where they still can be married with principles and actions, where people are not merely performing for cameras. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 507

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader aimlessness/speechlessness thread and to One Square Inch of Silence on silence as meaningful versus empty noise — mocking as a way of protecting meaning. — connects to: Fading hope breeds reverent repetition of emptied political slogans. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 143; Cynical joking paradoxically frees political complaint more than earnest volunteer talk does — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”: The work of avoiding…, 131